Puate 2601. 
SECALE AFRICANUM, Stapf. 
GRAMINER. Tribe HorDE. 
§. africanum, Stapf (sp. nov.) ; affine S. montano, spiculis paulo 
minoribus, glumis plerumque plus minusve inequalibus, valvarum 
nervis magis distinctis, carinis omnibus tenuiter brevissimeque 
spinuloso scabris diversum. 
Culmi graciles, ultra 14 ped. alti, leves, internodiis superioribus 
exsertis. o/ia (superiora tantum nota) glabra, oo vagine arctze ; 
ligule brevissime, obtuse ; laminz Pap i = tee, ad 6 poll. longe. 
(vel aristulam) brevem et scabrum attenuate, in carinis tenuiter bre- 
vissimeque spinuloso-scabre, inferior plerumque paulo brevior. Valve 
lineari-oblonge, in aristam tenuers scabram rectam 3-3} lin, longam 
S. cereale, Thunb. Prodr. Pl. Cap. p- 23 ; Fl. Cap. ed. i. p. 440; ed. 
Schult. p. 118: Travels ii. p. 168. Durand et Schinz, Consp. FL. Afr. 
v. p. 937 (in nota). 
Soutn Arrica: Cape Colony, Calvinia Div., “ Lowermost Rogge- 
veld,” near Wilhelm Stenkamps Farm (Elands Fontein of Burchell’s 
map, about twenty miles south-east of Calvinia), Thunberg. 
Thunberg says in his Travels ].c.: “These (the lowermost Rogge- 
veld) as well as the ethers Se have been so named from a 
kind of rye which grows wild here in abundance near the bushes.” 
Curiously enough it has net been sillectat again since Thunberg’s 
times. Burchell (Travels, i. ha 256) says : ‘I saw none of the wild rye 
which has been said to be so abundant as to give the name to this 
district, but this might ee ewing tu the season of the 
visited this district in nip ‘when grasses like this oeuke naturally 
have disappeared. It might be s uggested that S. africanum 18 @ 
variety of JS. cereale, which had peels gr tee by the farmers an 
then run wild ; but rye varies very little altogether, and, so far as I 
am aware, ever in a way w ich would oa se n the differences that 
characterise the new species described above 
SERGES IV. VOL. VII. PART I. “ 
