PLATE 157. 



Panicum laevifolium, Hack. (F1. Cap. Yol. VII., p. 405). 



Nat. Order Graminea?. 



Annual. — Culms fascicled, erect or ascending, 1 to 2J feet long, glabrous, 

 compressed to subterete, 3 to 5-noded, with flowering branches from most of the 

 nodes. 



Leaves glabrous ; sheaths lax, mostly shorter than the internodes, pallid, 

 striate ; ligules membranous, up to ^ line long, ciliate ; blades linear, shortly taper- 

 ing to a very acute point, 3 to 8 inches, by 2 to 3^ lines, suberect, flat or folded, 

 light green, smooth. 



Panicle erect, ovate, ^ to 1 foot long, very lax, open ; axis slender, smooth ; 

 branches solitary or 2-3-nate, remote the longest up to ^ to |- foot long, repeatedly 

 and very laxly divided from J to 1 J inch above the base, branchlets finely filiform 

 to capillary, scaberulous, the ultimate divisions 2-spiculate ; pedicels capillary, 2 to 

 4 lines long^ tips clavate. 



Spikelets oblong, obtuse, not compressed, slightly over 1 line long, pallid or 

 tinged with purple, quite glabrous. 



Glumes, lower much broader than long, clasping, very obtuse or subacuminate, 

 -g- to :f line long ; upper thin, subherbaceous, oblong, obtuse, slightly over 1 

 line long, 7 to 9-nerved. Florets, loiver male ; valve like the upper glume, 

 9-nerved ; pale subequal to the valve ; anthers ^ line long ; perfect floret elliptic- 

 oblong, subobtuse, 1 line long, whitish, quite smooth ; valve obscurely 5-nerved. 

 Grain oblong, obtuse. 



Habitat : Natal, Van Eeenen, 5-6000 feet alt., March, Wood 6014 ; near 

 De Beers Pass, March, 5-6000 feet alt.. Wood No. 5997; Shirley, Mooi Kiver, 

 4-5000 feet alt., March, W. T. Woods; Mooi River, 5-6000 feet, alt., March, 

 Mason 36, {Wood72>]-9) ; near Dundee, 5-6000 feet alt., Green 36. 



Drawn from Mason's 36, which was collected at " borders of cultivated land 

 near Mooi River." 



Specimens of 4 indigenous grasses were received for determination from Mr. 

 H. Ryle Shaw, editor of the " AgriculturalJournal." They proved to be Digitaria 

 .sanguinale, Setaria aurea, Eleusine indica, and the above described grass, Panicum 

 laevifolium, Nees. These were collected by Mr. W. T. Woods, of Shirley, Mooi 

 River, who for 40 years has been a stock farmer in Natal. He says of them : . 

 " Commonly known as ' land grasses ' which appear on the bottom lands of Mooi 

 River district when drained and cultivated. The yield is enormous, and the hay 

 much preferable to that of the short hill veldt." Of P. laevifoliujn, he says : 

 ■" 'Buffalo Grass ' grows in tussocks 4 feet high, readily eaten by stock while green, 

 and makes coarse but useful hay ; easily cut by mower, grows on poor land." 



I would only add that the grass known in the coast districts as " Buffalo- 

 ^rass " is Setaria sulcata, Raddi, formerly known here as Panicum, excurrens, Nees. 



Fig. 1, Portion of leaf with ligule ; 2, lower glume ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valys ; 

 5, pale ; 6, stamens and lodicules of male flower ; 7, upper valve ; 8; pale ; 9, stamens, pistil 

 and lodicules. All enlarged. 



