PLA.TE 150. 



Panicitm trichopus (Hochst. in Flora, 1844,254). (FI. Cap. Vol. VII. p. 391). 



Pere^^nial ? — Culms ascending from a decumbent geniculate base, 1-2 feet 

 long;, slender, glabrous or pubescent, 4-to many-noded, simple or scantily branched 

 above the base. Leaves finely hirsute with tubercle-based hairs, rarely glabrescent ; 

 sheaths rather lax, bearded at the nodes, ciliate along the outer margin ; ligules 

 membranous, very short, fimbriate. Blades linear to linear-lanceolate from a broad 

 rounded or sub-cordate base, acute to acuminate, 2-4 inches long, by 2-6 lines wide, 

 flat, flaccid, margins often wavy, scabrid, or fimbriate. 



False spikes 3-12, rather distant on a compressed or angular pubescent, 

 sometimes bristly, common axis, sub-erect or spreading, secund,2-4-ranked, I-I5- 

 inch long ; rhachis linear, |-f line broad, flat on the back, with a very ^^ro- 

 minent midrib on the face, scabrid or spinulously ciliate, and often with long 

 tubercle-based bristles as well, villous at the base ; pedicels solitary or 2-nate, and 

 then unequal, very short, , stout, scabrid, pubescent, with 1-3 bristles near the 

 thickened tips. 



Spikelets contiguous or imbricate, elliptic-ovate, acutely acuminate, 2 lines 

 long, pale. Glumes, lowzv turned away from the rhachis, elliptic, obtuse, 

 equalling |- of the spikelet, subhyaline, 3-nerved with 1-3 bristles from a central 

 tubercle ; ujyper membranous, elliptic-ovate, acutely acuminate, 2 lines long, 

 S-neiwed, scantily pubescent, sometimes with a few rigid cilia on one side. Lower 

 floret male. Valve like the upper glume, 3-5-nerved, rigidly and appressedly 

 ciliate on one or on both sides; pale equal; acuminate. " Anthers -g-l line long. 

 Po'/ect fiorets broadly elliptic, rounded, 1-1|- line long, whitish. Valve with a 

 scabrid mucro up to ^ line long, 5 -nerved, finely and transversely rugose. Anthers 

 f line long. 



Hubitat : — Natal. Umpumulo, 1,000 feet alt., Bnchanaii 218. 



Also in Tropical Africa. 



Fig. 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume. Luiorr Jioret. — 3, lower valve ; 4, pale ; 5, 

 stamens and lodicules. Perfect Jioret. — 6, lower glume ; 7, pale ; 8, stamens, style, stigma, 

 ovary and lodicules ; 9, pedicel. All enlarqed. 



