Panicum .] 
699 
CL VII, GrRAMINEJ® (Stapf). 
floret oblong, obtuse, 1-1 J lin. by over J lin,, yellowish, polished; 
valve and valvule subcoriaceous ; anthers dark purple, almost 
1 lin. long. — Engl. Glied. Yeg. Usambara, 22. 
Nile Land. British. East Africa : Tanaland, Linton , 206 ! Rabai Hills, 
near Mombasa, Taylor ! 
Mozambique Distr. German East Africa : Usambara ; in fields near Tanga, 
Saccleux , 2307 ! abandoned cultivation near Muoa, Holst, 3 EL 7 ! 
Very similar to and possibly identical with P. obscurans'(Isachne obscurans, 
Woodr.) from the Deccan, but the blades of P. obscurans are much wider (up 
to 7 lin.) and the panicle is perhaps on the whole more open with slightly 
larger spikelets. Woodrow says of his plant that the whole inflorescence breaks 
off and is driven about by the wind. According to the same author its grains 
are eaten as a fast- day food, and cooked lik e rice. 
53. P. Kerstingii, Mez in Engl. Jahrb. xxxiv. 145. Annual, 2 ft. 
high, scantily tufted. Culms slender, erect, simple, terete, glabrous, 
smooth, 4-5-noded, nodes shortly (if at all) exserted. Leaf-sheaths 
terete, the lowest becoming involute and slipping off the stem, 
increasing in length upwards, the upper up to 6 in. long, glabrous 
below, more or less hirsute upwards with tubercle-based hairs, 
rigidly ciliate, prominently striate, smooth ; ligule a membranous 
ciliate rim ; blades linear from an equally broad base, tapering to a 
very acute point, 4-10 in. by 2J-3J lin., flat, somewhat flaccid, more 
or less finely hirsute from tubercle-based hairs on or by the midrib 
and primary lateral nerves and along the margins, midrib slender, 
nerves fine and close, prominent, 4-5 primary nerves distinctly 
differentiated below. Panicles erect, enclosed with their contracted 
base in the uppermost sheath, much opening out upwards and very 
loose, up to 1-1 J ft. by 4-10 in., divided to the fourth or sometimes the 
fifth degree ; common axis slender, angular, smooth below, upwards 
like all its divisions scaberulous, exserted, internodes about 1 in. 
long or irregularly shorter (4 in.) and longer (up to 2 in.) ; lower and 
intermediate primary branches 6-10 in. long, solitary, very finely 
filiform, remotely divided from 1-1J in. above the base, internodes 
i in. to over 1 in. long ; secondary and ulterior branchlets sub- 
capillary to capillary, the secondary 1-1J in. long, the tertiary or 
upwards the secondary bearing the spikelets towards their tips ; 
pedicels from very short to 1 \ (rarely 3) lin. long, somewhat thickened 
towards the truncate tips. Spikelets ovate-oblong, acute or shortly 
acuminate, 1 \ lin. long, pale green, often tinged with purple, glabrous. 
Glumes membranous, more or less prominently nerved upwards, 
rounded on the back, unequal ; lower ovate, acute or mucronulate, 
up to half or two-thirds the length of the spikelet, 3-5-nerved ; 
upper of the length and outline of the spikelet, 7-nerved. Lower 
floret barren : valve very similar to the upper glume, but slightly 
shorter and the nerves fainter ; valvule very much reduced. Upper 
floret oblong, subobtuse, 1 lin. by \ lin., turning yellowish, 
polished ; valve and valvule subcoriaceous ; anthers dark purple, 
over | lin. long. 
