PLATE 156. 



Panicum maximum, Jacq. (F1. Cap. Vol. VII., p. 404). 

 Nat. Order Graminese. 



Perennial. — (Sometimes flowering the first year). Tufted, innovation shoots 

 intravaginal, rhizome short, sometimes very stout. 



Culms erect or geniculate, robust, usually ta'l, up to 10 feet long, compressed 

 below, glabrous or the lower part more or less hirsute, usually 3 to 6-noded, sub- 

 simple or more or less branched, branches erect, upper internodes exserted. 



Leaves glabrous or softly hairy or coarsely hirsute with tubercle-base hairs ; 

 sheaths rather firm, the lower compressed, striate, nodes glabrous, pubescent or 

 bearded ; ligules membranous, very short, ciliate, and often with a dense beard 

 behind ; blades linear to lanceolate-linear from a contracted and rounded or 

 attenuate base, long tapering to a fine (sometimes convolute and filiform) point, J 

 to 2 feet by 2 to 8 lines, rarely broader ; flat, minutely tomentose at the junction 

 with the blade, midrib rather stout, whitish. 



Panicle erect or nodding, contracted or effuse and lax, decompound, from J to 

 over 1 foot long, axis slender, angular, glabrous, smooth or scaberulous above ; 

 lower branches whorled, suberect or spreading, rather distant, up to 6 inches long, 

 divided almost from the base, or undivided for 1 to 2^ inches, filiform, scaberulous 

 above, smooth below, glabrous except at the often minutely tomentose or pubescent 

 ■callous base. Pedicels fascicled, 3-2-nate or the upper solitary, very unequal, very 

 short to several times longer than the spikelet, capillary, flexuous, scabrid. 



Spikelbts oblong, subobtuse or obtuse, somewhat turgid, 1^ to Ij line long, 

 light green, sometimes tinged with purple, glabrous, rarely puberulous. 



Glumes, lower rounded, i to f line long, subhyaline, faintly 3-nerved to 

 nerveless, upper oblong, acute or subobtuse, l|- to Ij line long, membranous, 

 5-nerved. Florets, lower male, valve very similar to and very slightly shorter than 

 the upper glume ; pale oblong, obtuse ; perfect floret equalling the male or scarcely 

 shorter, oblong, obtuse, valve 5-nerved, finely transversely rugose. Anthers J to f 

 line long. Grain over J line long. 



Habitat : Natal. Common between 2000 and 2500 feet, Buchanan 263 ; 

 Umpumulo, 2000 to 2500 feet, Buchanan 264 ; Hills near the Umlazi River, 

 Krauss 183; Durban, Drege ; McKen 100 \ Buchanan 30; by the Umzimkulu 

 Piver, Drege ; and between the Umkomanzi River and the CJmlazi River, Drege ; 

 Delagoa Bay, Forbes ; near Maritzburg, St. George 13 ; near Dundee, Green 84 ; 

 {Wood 7455) ; near Durban, Wood 5999. 



Baron Mueller says of this grass : — " The ' Guinea grass.' Tropical Africa ; 

 elsewhere not indigenous. This perennial grass attains a height of 8 feet. It is 

 highly nutritious, and quite adapted for the warmer temperate zone, being hardy 

 as far south as Buenos Ayres. In Jamaica it is the principal fodder grass up to 

 elevations of 5,000 feet, springing up over wide tracts of country almost to the 

 exclusion of everything else. It forms large bunches, which, when cut young, 

 supply a particularly sweet and tender hay ; throws out numerous stolons ; can be 

 mown every six weeks ; the roots can be protected in the ground against light 

 frosts by a thin covering with soil. A favourite grass in tropical countries for 



stall fodder It is necessary to guard against over- feeding with this 



grass solely. Succeeds even on poor clay soil and on sea sand." 



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

 lodicules ; 6, upper valve ; 7, pale ; 8, stamens, pistil and lodicules. All enlaiged. 



