372 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
Locality : — Shaikh Othman (Schweinf.). 
Distribution \ — Most warm countries. 
Uses : — This plant is an excellent fodder grass, (c.f. Church, Food 
Grains of India, 1886, p. 50). 
3. Panicum turgidum Forsk. FI. Aeg.-Arab (1775) p. 18; Del. FI. 
Aegypt. III. 51, t. 9, f . 2 ; Nees Agrost. Bras. I, 172 (in nota) ; Trin. 
Pan. Gen. 221, Sp. Gram. Ic. t. 227 ; Kunth Enum. PI. I, 97 ; Steud. 
Syn. Gram. 88; Duthie Fodd. Grass. N. Ind. p. 13 ; Hook. FI. Brit. 
Ind. VII, 44; Cooke FI. Bomb. Pres. II, 935. 
Arabic Name : — Thomam. 
Description : — Perennial, glabrous, glaucous; rootstock some- 
times as thick as the little finger ; root-fibres thick, velvety ; stem 
hard, (bamboo-like), solid, smooth and polished, inch in diameter 
about the middle, emitting from the nodes fascicles of branches in tufts 
from a swollen base. Leaves few, those at the base of the stem and 
branches 1-3 inches long, flat, coriaceous, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 
smooth, those of the upper nodes often reduced to open chartaceous 
sheaths with a setiform blade. 
Panicle terminal, subpyramidal, 1^-4 inches long; branches at first 
erect, then more or less spreading, J-1J inches long; rhachis angular, 
grooved, glabrous. Spikelets inch long, solitary, or rarely 2-nate, 
subsecund, ovoid, turgid, glabrous, white ; pedicels short or long, with 
a cupular tip, scaberulous. Glumes 4, subcoriaceous ; lower involucral 
glume scarcely shorter than the upper, and about equalling the lower 
floral glume, broadly ovate, acute, concave, .5-7-nerved ; upper 
involucral glume broadly ovate, acute, 7 -nerved ; lower floral glume ovate, 
acuminate, 9-nerved, paleate, male; upper floral glume much smaller 
than the lower, ovate-oblong, acute, smooth, polished. Anthers purple. 
Styles snort ; stigmas short, pale purple. 
Locality: — Little Aden (Def., Schweinf.). 
Distribution : — Nubia, Abyssinia, Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, Socotra, 
S. Persia, Baluchistan, Sind, Gujarat. 
This is the most common plant of the Nubian steppe. 
4. Panicum antidotale Retz. Obs. fasc. IV (1786), p. 17; Trin. 
Gram. Pan. 227, Pan. Gen. 195; Nees Agrost. Bras. 201; Kunth 
Enum. PI. I, 125 ; Steud. Syn. Gram. 77 ; Wight Cat. n. 1630 ; Thw. 
Enum. PI. Zeyl. 360; Trim. Cat. Cevl. PI. 105; Aitchis. Cat. Panj. 
PI. 158 ; Duthie Grass. N. W. Ind. 2, Fodd. Grass, t. 3, Fodd. Grass. 
