PLATE 498. 
Panicum capillare, Linn. (Fl. Cap., Yol. VII., p. 407). 
Nat. Order Graminea\ 
AxxuAL. — Culms fascicled, erect, or ascending. 1 to 2 feet high, robust, about 
5-noded with floAvering branches from some or most of the nodes, sheathed all along, 
glabrous or liairv below the panicle or nodes. 
Lea\'ks more or less (often \erv copiously) hirsute or villous, rarel}' subglabrous ; 
sheaths lax ; ligules membranous up to ^ line long, ciliate ; blades linear to linear- 
lanceolate, long tapering to a fine ])oint, subrigid to flaccid, mai-gins scabrid. 
Paxicle often ver\' large, decompound, lax, contracted, then opening out from 
the top downwards, uj) to 1 foot or more by | foot ; rhachis angidnr. often sparsely 
hairy, smooth below, scabrid al)ove : l)ranches solitary, subo])])osite or 8-nate, or 
irregularh' approximate, filiform, angular, scabrid, undivided for ^ to 1 inch from the 
base, then i-epeatedly and very laxly divided, the longest up to 1 foot long ; branchlets 
long, finch' filiform to capillary at length divaricate, scaljrid : ])edice]s verv unecjual, 
from ^ line to more than ^ inch long, capillary, very scabrid, ti|)s subclavate. 
Spikelkts oljlong to lanceolate-oblong, acuminate, from less than 1 to 1^^ line 
long, greenish or ])urplish, glabrous. 
(tlumes, lower broadly ovate, acute, equalling about half of the spikelet, 3 to 
sub-o-nerved ; upper oblong, acuminate, from less than 1 to 1;^ line long, o- to 
7 -nerved ; lower fioret reduced to the valve, which very much resembles the upper 
glume. Perfect floret oblong, sulmcute, | 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, Spikelet; 2, lower glume; 3, upper glume; 4, lower Aalve : 5, upper valve ; 
6, pale ; 7, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 
