PLATE 492. 
Panicum stagninum, Koeiiig. (Fl. Cap., Vol. Vil., p. 394). 
Nat. ( )ixler Graininefie. 
Annual or Perennial. — Culms erect from a geniculate or prostrate base, 
terete or subterete, up to 6 feet high, in tall specimens to more than 3 lines thick 
below, often rooting from the lower nodes, sheathed all along or some of the nodes 
at length exserted, often branched in the lower part ; sheaths finely striate, smooth, 
terete or subcarinate above, quite glabrous, rarely pubescent at the lowest nodes ; 
ligule a fringe of rather long stitF hairs, or sometimes 0 in the uppermost leaves ; 
blades linear from a scarcely narrowed usually not decurrent base, long-tapering 
to a tine point, |- to more than 1^ foot by '2^ to 7 lines, flat, rigid or flaccid, 
glabrous, light green or glaucous, smooth above, scabrid below, particularly in the 
upper part, margins cartilaginous, scabrid to spinulous. 
Panicle erect or nodding, 4 to 10 inches long, secund ; axis slender, more or 
less flexuous, convex or flat on the back, usually hispidulous with scattered bristles, 
rarely glabrous except on the scabrid angles ; branches few to many, distant or 
rather crowded, alternate, suberect or nodding, 1 to 2 inches long, forming often 
stout dense 2-4-ranked simple secund sessile false spikes ; rhachis like the axis, 
but more slender ; pedicels 4-2-nate, extremely short, tips discoid. 
Spikelets crowded, ovate-oblong to lanceolate-ovate, 2-3 lines long, rarely 
less, pallid, hispid. 
Glumes, lower ovate, thin, acuminate or mucronate, about half the length of 
the spikelet, 3 to sub-5-nerved ; upper oblong, thin, equalling the spikelet, concave, 
cordate-acuminate or produced into a short, scabrid compressed awn, 5 -nerved or 
7-nerved at the tips, pubescent between the hispidulous nerves. Florets, loiver 
male or sometimes barren ; valve similar to the upper glume, but flat or depressed 
on the back, subhyaline except the herbaceous sides, awn 2 to 12 lines long; pale 
oblong, keels scabrid. Anthers when present 1 line long ; perfect floret oblong to 
lanceolate-oblong, mucronate-acuminate, 1^ to 2 J lines long, excluding the scabrid 
mucro, straw-coloured, smooth, shining ; valve 5-nerved. 
Habitat : Natal. Near Newcastle, 3000-4000 feet, March, W. Sutherland 
{Wood 10,007). 
" Through Tropical Africa, from the Senegal to Abyssinia, in Madagascar and 
India." 
Drawn from the specimen collected by W. Sutherland, the only one in the 
Colonial Herbarium. 
Fig 1, A spikelet; 2. lower glume : 3. upper glume: 4. lower valve ; 5, pale : C. upper 
valve ; 7, pale ; 8, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All enlur</<'d. 
