PLATE 178. 



Pennisetum unisetum, Bentb. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 137). 



Nat. Order Gramineao. 



Perennial. — Rhizome short, priemorse ; innovation buds rather stout, acute, 

 with firm, ovate, striate, ciliate scales. 



Culms 3 to 12 feet high, erect branched, particularly from upper nodes, or 

 simple below, terete, or rarely semiterete in the lower and subtriquetrous in the 

 uppermost internodes, very firm, obscurely striate, glabrous, glaucous, nodes 8 or 

 more, longest internodes |- to 1 foot long ; sheaths strong, the loiver and middle 

 as long as the internodes or shorter, ultimately spreading, the upper longer, tighter, 

 glabrous except the .usually ciliate mouth and the sometimes hairy nodes ; ligules 

 very short and ciliate or a fringe of hairs ; blades lanceolate-linear from a usually 

 long-narrowed base, or petioled, long tapering to a setaceous point, the longest from 

 ^ to 1^ foot, by 3 to 10 lines, rather firm, glaucous, scabrid above, sometimes 

 shortly and sparingly hairy, margins very rough. 



Racemes on long very slender peduncles, 1 or several from the upper nodes, 

 sometimes very numerous, ^ to 2 inches long ; rhachis angular, scabrid. 



Spikelets subimbricate, oblong or lanceolate-oblong, acute, l\ to Ij line long, 

 often purplish, basal bristles J to 10 lines long. 



Glumes reduced to a minute rounded or truncate nerveless scaberulous scales, 

 lower ^ to \, upper |- to |- line long ; lower floret reduced to a valve minutely 

 ciliate below the tip, otherwise scaberulous or almost smooth, firmly membranous, 

 finely 5-nerved, margins obscurely inflexed in the upper third ; upper valve similar 

 to the lower, glabrous ; pale almost as long as the valve, hyaline, 2-nerved ; 

 lodicules broadly cuneiform, fleshy, lo line long ; anthers f to f line long ; grain 

 unknown. 



EsibiiSit : Natal. Near Durban, in cofiee gardens, Drege ; Umpumulo, 1500 

 to 2000 feet alt., Buchanan 220, 221 ; tJmhlanga, 3 to 500 feet alt.. Wood 6059. 



Drawn from Wood's 6059, and compared with Buchanan's 220, 221. 



Fig 1, Spikelet ; 2, lower valve ; 3, upper valve ; 4, pale ; 5, pi»til, stamens and lodicules. 

 All enlarged. 



