PLATE 155. 



Paniuum deustqm, Thunb. (F1. Cap. Vol. VII., p. 403). 

 Nat. Order Graminese, 



Perennial. — Culms from a very short rhizome or the tops of slender stolons, 

 fascicled with few intra vaginal innovation shoots, erect or geniculate ly ascending, 

 2 to 4 feet long, glabrous or finely pubescent below the nodes, sometimes hirsute 

 towards the panicle, terete, 3 to 6-noded, subsimple or scantily branched, upper 

 internodes more or less exserted. Leaves glabi'ous or sparingly (rarefy densely) 

 hirsute with tubercle-based hairs; sheaths rather firm, terete or subcompressed, 

 striate, nodes pubescent ; ligule a narrow membranous softly ciliate rim ; blades 

 linear to linear-lanceolate from a contracted and rounded or gradually attenuate 

 base, long tapering to a very fine point, |^ to l^- foot by 4 to 8 lines (rarely by 1 

 inch), flat, smooth except the scabrid mai-gins, midrib rather stout, whitish. 



Panicle erect or nodding, contracted or lax, 3 to 9 inches long ; axis slender, 

 angular, scabrid with fine tubercle-based hairs, often pubescent or subhirsute below 

 the nodes, branches scattered or subopposite or scantily whorled, suberect or 

 spreading, rather distant, up to 4 inches long, simple, laxly racemose, with 2-nate 

 spikelets, or divided almost from the base, filiform, flexuous or strict, angular, very 

 scabrid, sometimes with scattered hairs. Pedicels usually 2-nate, unequal, the 

 terminal sometimes up to fi inches long, filiform, scabrid, glabrous or with few long 

 hairs. 



Spikelets oblong, obtuse, turgid, 2 to 2|- lines long, light green usually with 

 purple or blackish tips, glabrous. 



Glumes, lower membranous, obtuse or subacute, 1 to IJ line long, 5 to 7- 

 nerved, sometimes purple at the base ; vpiier one firmly membranous, oblong, 2 to 

 2J lines hmg, 7-nerved. Florets, lower male ; valve ovate-oblong, obtuse, some 

 what shorter than the upper gluine ; pale oblong, obtuse. Anthers Ij line long. 

 Perfect floret exceeding the male and sometimes also the upper glume ; narrowly 

 oblong, obscurely and obtusely apiculate, yellowish, smooth, shining. Valve 

 coriaceous, 5-uerved. Grain obovoid-elliptic, over 1 line ling ; hilum oblong, J the 

 length of the grain. 



Ea.bitRt : Natal. By streamlets near Umpumulo, Buchanan 265a ; Ubahi, 

 Sutherland; near Durban, M'^illiaTuson 17, 18; and without precise locality, 

 Gerrard 483 ; Coojier 3342 ; Buchanan 265 ; Zululand, Jenkinson 97. 



Drawn from Buchanan's 265 and 2,65a. 



Mr. Jenkinson says of this grass : " Liked by cattle, only found in small 

 patches." '' This grass is very variable with respect to hairiness and the length of 

 the pedicels." 



Fig 1 , Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, lower valve ; 4, pale ; 5, stamens and lodicules ; 

 6, upper vsilve ; 7, pale. All enlarged. 



