PLATE 154. 



Panicum zizanioides, H.B.K. (F1. Cap. Vol. 7, page 402). 



Nat. Order Gramineae. 



Perennial. — Culms rather slender, firm, ascending from an often long 

 prostrate and rooting base, up to 8 feet long, and to 2- to 4 feet high, glabrous, 

 many-noded, more or less branched. 



Leaves, sheaths rather tight or the lower loose and deciduous, striate, glabrous 

 or finely hairy to hirsute in the upper part, margins ciliate ; ligule a ciliate 

 inembranous rim ; blades obliquely erect or spreading, ovate-lanceolate, to lanceolate, 

 rarely linear, from a rounded auricled or cordate base, acuminate or gradually 

 tapering to an acute point, 3 to 7 inches, by J to 1 inch, flat, firm, glabrous, 

 smooth or scantily dotted Avith small hairs on the upper surface, closely nerved and 

 transversely veined near the base -when broad, margins cartilaginous, scabrid to 

 spinulous, often fimbriate at the base. 



Panicle erect or slightly nodding, more or less contracted, lax, 4 to 8 inches 

 long ; axis slender, angular, glabrous or pubescent particularly at the nodes, angles 

 smooth or scabrid ; branches 4 to 8, rarely more, usually solitary, distant, suberect, 

 1 to 5 inches lone, simple or shortly and sparingly branched from the base or near it, 

 triangular, very slender to filiform, minutely tomentose at the base, internodes 2 to 

 8 lines long ; lower pedicels 2-nate, unequal, upper solitary, the longer 1 J to 6 lines 

 long, triangular, scabrid. 



Spikelets oblong-ellipsoid, 2 to 3 lines long, turgid, glabrous, smooth, light 

 green, usually obscurely nerved. Glumes oblong, rather firm, subcarinate above, 

 with callous, laterally compressed tips, lower shorter by \ or less, 3-nerved, upper 

 equalling the spikelet, 5-nerved. Florets, loiver male ; valve very similar to the 

 upper glume ; pale equal, acute ; perfect floret equalling the male, oblong ; valve 

 coriaceous, smooth, shining, straw-coloured or whitish, 5-nerved ; pale subauriculate 

 near the base ; anthers 1 line long. 



EdMtat: Natal. Without precise locality Gerrard 480. Berea 150 feet 

 alt., March, PFooc? No. 5941. 



Also in West Africa, India and tropical America. 



Drawn from Wood's specimen, the only one in the Government Herbarium. 



Fig ] , Portion of leaf with ligule ; 2, lower glnmo, back view ; 3, upper glume, back 

 view ; 4, lower valve, back view ; 5, pale ; 6, stamens and lodicules ; 7, upper valve ; 8, pale ; 

 9, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 



