698 
CLVII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
[. Panicum . 
vi. 12. P. asperrimum, Eisch. Cat. Hort. Govenk. ex Jacq. Eclog. 
Gram. 46, t. 31 ; Nees, Agrost. Bras. 199. P. Milium, Pers. Syn. i. 
83. Milium esculentum, Moench, Method. 203 ; M. Panicum, Mill. 
Gard. Diet. Ed. viii. no. 1. 
Mozambique Distr. Nyasaland : Manganja Hills near Soche, 3000 ft., Kirk ! 
Mungazi (cultivated), Kirk ! 
According to Schweinfurth, Hohnel found this species in cultivation in 
Kikuyu and Ukambani, 4200-5200 ft., British East Africa (Schweinf. in 
Hohnel, Discovery Lakes Rudolf and Stefani, ii. App. 352). Very commonly 
cultivated in India where it is supposed to have originated. I have seen no 
specimen which I should consider spontaneous. The specimens quoted above 
appear to belong to the form described by Koernicke (in Koern. & Wern. Handb. 
Getreidebau, i. 258) as P. miliaceum , var. contractum, f. luteum. 
52. P. hippothrix, K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 103. 
Annual, 2-3 ft. high. Culms moderately slender, erect from a genicu- 
late base, simple or sparingly branched, terete, easily compressible, 
glabrous, smooth, 4-5-noded, intermediate nodes exserted, lower and 
upper enclosed. Leaf-sheaths terete, the lower loose, the upper 
tight, glabrous or shortly hirsute upwards with tubercle-based hairs 
and ciliate towards the mouth, rarely sparingly hirsute all' over, 
prominently striate, smooth ; ligule a membranous densely and long- 
ciliate rim ; blades linear from an equally wide or slightly attenuated 
base, long-tapering to a subsetaceous point, 6-9 in. by 1J-2J in., 
flat, somewhat hard, flexuous, loosely and finely hairy above par- 
ticularly towards the base where the hairs are sometimes gathered 
in a beard, glabrous or almost so on the back, scaberulous along the 
margins, otherwise smooth or slightly rough above, midrib very 
slender, primary lateral nerves about 3 on each side, more or less 
differentiated below only. Panicle erect, rather stiff, with its 
contracted base enclosed in the uppermost sheath, opening out up- 
wards, wide and loose, up to over 1 ft. by over J ft., very loosely 
divided to the third degree, common axis slender, angular, smooth 
below, upwards like all the divisions scabrid, lowest internodes short, 
the following much longer (to over 3 in.) ; lower primary branches 
solitary or whorled, up to 9 in. long, filiform, remotely divided from 
1-2 in. above the base, internodes 1J-1 in. long ; secondary branch- 
lets 3-1 \ in. long, bearing very few spikelets ; pedicels finely filiform, 
stiff, 2J to over 12 lin. long, slightly thickened towards the truncate 
tips and sometimes with a few short stiff hairs below them. Spikelets 
lanceolate-ovate or oblong, subulate-acuminate, about 2 lin. long, 
greenish or straw-coloured, sometimes tinged with purple, quite 
glabrous. Glumes membranous, ovate, prominently nerved ; 
lower very acute to subacuminate, lj-lf lin. long, 5-nerved, nerves 
joined at their tips by cross-veins ; upper of the size and 
outline of the spikelet, 7-9-nerved, both rounded on the back. 
Lower floret barren ; valve very similar to the upper glume, but 
slightly shorter, 9-nerved ; valvule oblong, subacute, shorter. Upper 
