PLATE 472. 



Pantcum pyramid ale, Lara. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 395). 



Nat. Order GramineaD. 



Perknnial. — Culms erect from a geniculate or prostrate base, or floating, 

 terete, up to 15 feet high, in tall specimens very robust, as thick below as the 

 middle finger or thicker, often with whorls of long roots from the submerged nodes, 

 sheathed all along or some of the internodes at length exserted, many-noded ; 

 sheaths striate, smooth, glabrous, rarely hispid, terete ; ligule a fringe of hairs. 

 Blades linear from a rather broad and rounded, or from a slightly attenuate and 

 decurrent base, long tapering to a fine point, 1 to 2 feet by 3 to 12 lines, flat, firm, 

 glabrous, often more or less glaucous, smooth above, scabrid below in the upper 

 part, margins cartilaginous, spinulous or scabrid or smooth below, midrib usually 

 broad, whitish. 



Panicle erect, rarely nodding, usually linear-oblong, dense, |- to 1 foot long, 

 facing all sides or sometimes subsecund ; axis stout, 3 to 4 angular, sulcate, 

 hispiduloxis or glabrous and smooth except the scabrid angles, usually with a fringe 

 of hairs at the nodes ; branches very many, some solitary, others 2-nate or fascicled, 

 the lowest distant, the others rather close, suberect, strict or flexuous, rarely 

 nodding, 1 to 3 inches long, forming moderately dense simple or subsimple spikes ; 

 rhachis slender, triquetrous, hispid ulous or glabrous ; pedicels fascicled, very short, 

 tips discoid. 



Spikelets ovoid, cuspidate, Ij to 2 lines long, greenish or variegated with 

 purple. 



Glumes herbaceous- membranous ; lower broadly ovate, clasping at the base, 

 acute, about half the length of the spikelet, 5-nerved', margins scabrid or ciliate ; 

 upper glume ovate to ovate-oblong, shortly acuminate, very concave, scarcely 

 shorter than the spikelet, 5 to 7-nerved, minutely and rigidly pubescent or sub- 

 glabrous between the scabrid or spinulous nerves. Florets, lower male, valve 

 similar to the upper glume, flat on the back, pale oblong, subacuminate, keels 

 scabrid. Anthers J to 1 line long. Perfect floret usually elliptic, rarely oblong, 

 cuspidate, 1|- to 2 lines long, straw-coloured, smooth, valve coriaceous, 5-nerved. 



The typical form is common throughout tropical Africa, sometimes covering 

 large areas in and near stagnant water. 



Habitat : Natal. Valley of the Umgeni River, Drege 4242 ; near Verulam, 

 200-300 feet alt., Wood 8S77'. 



Drawn from Wood's specimen. 



Fig I, "Rhachis and spikelets ; 2, lower glume ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valve ; 5, pale ; 

 6, stamens and lodicules ; 7, upper glume ; 8, pale ; 9, pistil, stamens, and locjicules. All 

 enlarged, ' ' " 



