PLATE 498. 



Panicum capillaee, Linn. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 407). 



Nat. Order Graminese. 



Annual. — Culms fascicled, erect, or ascending, 1 to 2 feet high, robust, about 

 o-noded with flowering branches from some or most of the nodes, sheathed all along, 

 glabrous or hairy below the panicle or nodes. 



Leaves more or less (often very copiously) hirsute or villous, rarely subglabrous ; 

 sheaths lax ; ligules membranous up to J line long, cilia te ; blades linear to linear- 

 lanceolate, long tapering to a fine point, subrigid to flaccid, margins scabrid. 



Panicle often very large, decompound, lax, contracted, then opening out from 

 the top downwards, up to 1 foot or more by f foot ; rhachis angular, often sparsely 

 hairy, smooth below, scabrid above ; branches solitary, subopposite or 3-nate, or 

 irregularly approximate, filiform, angular, scabrid, undivided for j to 1 inch from the 

 base, then repeatedly and very laxly divided, the longest up to 1 foot long ; branchlets 

 long, finely filiform to capillary at length diA-aricate, scabrid ; pedicels verj- unequal, 

 from ^ line to more than |- inch long, capillary, -s-ery scabrid, tips subclavate. 



Spikelets oblong to lanceolate-oblong, acuminate, from less than 1 to 1 J line 

 long, greenish or purplish, glabrous. 



Glumes, lower broadly ovate, acute, equalling about half of the spikelet, 3 to 

 sub-5-nerved ; upper oblong, acuminate, from less than 1 to IJ line long, 5- to 

 7 -nerved ; lower floret reduced to the valve, which very much resembles the upper 

 glume. Perfect floret oblong, subacute, f to ^ line long, very smooth, shining, 

 yellowish ; valve faintly 7 -nerved ; anthers ^ line long. 



A native of North America, introduced elsewhere. 



Habitat : Natal. Near Maritzburg, St. George ( Wood 8880), December 1898. 



Fig 1, Sjjikelet; 2, lower glume; 3, upper glume; 4, lower Aalve; 5, upper valve ; 

 6, pale ; 7, pistil, stamens and lodicules. AU enlarged. 



