1954] 



PLANTS COLLECTED IN NYASALAND 



109 



Panicum meyerianum Nees, Fl. Afr. Austr. 32. 1841; Stapf in Prain, Fl. Trop. 



Afr. 9: 650. 1920. 



Panicum s chimp erianum Hochst. ex A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 371. 1851. 

 Panicum mite Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 68. 1854. 



Helopus meyerianus (Nees) Doell in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2*: 189. 1877, in obs. 

 Eriochloa borumensis Hack. Bull. Herb. Boiss. II. 1: 765. 1901. 



Chikwawa District: Lower Mwanza River, scattered on sandy beaches, 180 m., 

 October 10, 1946, 18000. Throughout east Africa from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 

 to Natal; also in tropical Arabia (Yemen). 



Hackel's specimen of Eriochloa borumensis Hack. (Portuguese East Africa, 

 Boruma, Menyharth 1114), in the Herbarium of the Botanical Institute of the Uni- 

 versity of Vienna was examined in 1938; it agrees with the author's description 

 and represents the same species as Panicum meyerianum Nees. This explains 

 the discrepancy noted by Stapf in a footnote to his description of Eriochloa boru- 

 mensis (Prain, Fl. Trop. Afr. 9: 501, 1919), in which he observed that Menyharth' s 

 specimens, (examples of which he had studied and described in the Zurich Herba- 

 rium) were destitute of the little awnlets present in Allen's and Kirk's specimens, 

 and also that the lower glume was more distinctly developed. Stapf s description 

 is largely based on Menyharth's specimens, but includes structural details ob- 

 tained from the other specimens cited by him; these specimens represent a new 

 species of Eriochloa. 



Panicum monticola Hook. f. Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. 7: 226. 1864. 

 P. mannii Mez, Bot. Jahrb. 34: 143. 1904. 



Mlanje District: Mlanje Mountain; Luchenya Plateau, common on paths in for- 

 est, 1820 m., July 1, 1946, 16570'; ibid., in broken shade in forest, 1890 m., July 

 7, 1946, 16713. Cameroons Mountain; mountains of Uganda, Belgian Congo, and 

 Tanganyika Territory. 



Although the Nyasaland specimens differ from the Cameroons Mountain type- 

 material in the relatively narrower and longer leaf-blades, and in the shorter 

 oblate nerveless lower glume, they are connected by a series of intermediates 

 from other east African mountains. 



P. phragmitoides Stapf in Prain, Fl. Trop. Afr. 9: 677. 1920. 



North Nyasa District: Nchena-chena, clearing in Brachystegia woodland, 1340 

 m., August 21, 1946, 17378. French Guinea, Nigeria, French Equatorial Africa, 

 through the Cameroons and Belgian Congo to Portuguese East Africa and Angola. 



The name P. phragmitoides Stapf was listed without description by A. Che- 

 valier (Sudani a 74, 76. 1911). 



Sacciolepis chevalieri Stapf in Prain, Fl. Trop. Afr. 9: 754. 1920. 



Kota-kota District: Chia area; frequent on moist edges of marshes, 480 m., 

 Sept. 1, 1946, 17471. French Sudan, French Equatorial Africa, and Uganda. 



Setaria grandis Stapf in Prain, Fl. Trop. Afr. 9: 832. 1930. 



North Nyasa District: Nyika Plateau, about 3 m., high, forming large clumps on 

 banks of grassland streams, 2300 m., August 14, 1946, 17229. Endemic. 



Brass' specimen is only the third collection of this remarkable species of Se- 

 taria, the first — the TYPE in the British Museum Herbarium — having been made 

 by Henderson on the Nyika Plateau in November 1908, in marshy ground about 10 

 miles west of the north-western shore of Lake Nyasa at an altitude of between 

 2100 and 2340 m. The second gathering was made by B. C. Charles on January 

 1st, 1938, who found it at an altitude of about 2400 m., on the same plateau. He 

 reports that the grass is known as "Kararanyika" (Chitumbuka) and reputed to be 

 poisonous to cattle. 



