T art H- 
1 
Paspalum.\ 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapfj. 
577 
Barter , 1230! Abinsi ; common in damp places, Dalziel , 871 (partly)! 
'Cameroons ; Bongolo, Macleod ! 
Nile Land. Jur : Ghattas’ Great Seriba, Schweinfurth, 2119 ! 
Lower Guinea. Belgian Congo : Cataracts Div. ; Banzu Manteka, in sandy 
places, Hens, A 208 ! Stanley Pool Div., on sandbanks near Muschie, Vanderyst , 
3979 ! 
Mozambique Distr. Zanzibar Island, Last ! Portuguese East Africa : 
between Shupanga and Sena, and at the Kongone mouth of the Zambesi, Kir/c ! 
5. P. paniculatum, Linn . Syst. ed. 10, ii. 855. Perennial, up to 
<over 3 ft. high, from a short rhizome covered with coarsely hirsute 
cataphylls or their remains ; innovations extra vaginal, stout. 
Culms erect or geniculately ascending, simple, usually 3-noded, 
glabrous, compressed below. Leaves more or less hirsute, hairs 
frequently tubercle-based ; sheaths more or less keeled, striate, the 
lower laterally compressed, the uppermost slightly inflated, all 
bearded at the nodes ; ligules membranous, truncate, very short ; 
blades linear-lanceolate to linear, tapering to a fine point, 3-13 in. 
by 4-7 lin., soft, flat, margins smooth, cartilaginous, often crisped 
or wavy, lateral nerves 5-7 on each side, midrib slightly prominent 
below ; indumentum of young leaves rather dense and soft. Panicle 
subfastigiate, contracted or ultimately open and broad-ovate, 3-6 in. 
by 3-4 in., of 10-20 scattered or irregularly approximate racemes at 
first erect but ultimately spreading ; common axis terete or angular, 
almost glabrous or more or less hairy towards the nodes. Racemes 
slender, dense, 4- or by partial abortion 2-ranked, 1-3 \ in. long; 
rhachis triquetrous, up to \ lin. wide, straight, lateral angles with 
narrow herbaceous wings, bearded at the base, otherwise glabrous 
or nearly so, internodes J-f or sometimes 1 lin. long, often alternately 
longer and shorter and then the pedicels approximate ; pedicels 
2-nate, unequal, the longer up to J lin. long, filiform, sometimes with 
a few hairs near the tip. Spikelets imbricate, rotundate-elliptic in 
outline, almost hemispheric, plano-convex, obtuse or subapiculate, 
j-f lin. long, straw-coloured to purplish-brown, often dark. Lower 
glume 0 ; upper corresponding in size and outline to the spikelet, 
very convex, thinly membranous, pubescent, 3-nerved. Lower 
floret reduced to a more or less flat valve, very similar to the 
upper glume but with the lateral nerves submarginal. Upper 
floret as long as the lower and similar in outline but very obtuse ; 
valve and valvule firmly papery to crustaceous, pale, the latter 
with broadly auricled flaps. Anthers purple, up to f lin. long. 
Styles deep purple. — Linn. Sp. PI. ed. ii. 81 ; Willd. Sp. PI. i. 331 ; 
Gsertn. Fruct. ii. 2, t. 80, fig. 2 ; Fliigge, Monogr. Gram. 180 ; Nees, 
Agrost. Bras. 72 ; Trin. Gram. Pan. 104, Pan. Gen. 50, and Sp. 
Gram. Ic. t. 127 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 59 ; Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 
18 ; Franch. Contrib. FI. Congo Frang. 31 ; Rendle in Cat. Afr. 
PI. Welw. ii. 161 ; Nash in N. Amer. FI. xvii. 189 ; Hitchcock in 
Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. xii. 116 ; Hitchcock & Chase in Contrib. 
U.S. Nat. Herb, xviii. 316. P. hemisphericum, Poir. Encycl. v. 31. 
FL. TROP. AFR. VOL. IX. — PT. 4. 2 P 
3 S'aUju’C V, li-2'D 
