PLATE 102. 



SACCHARUM MUNROANUM (Hack. Androp. in DC. Mongr. Plan. vi. 124.) 



CULMS 2 feet long, 3-noded. 



LEAVES, lower crowded. Sheaths rather lax, scantily hairy at the nodes. 

 otherwise gl'ahrous, the lowest shining as if lacquered ; ligule short with hairs 

 from the base behind, otherwise glabrous. Blades narrow, linear, acute, flat, 

 4-5 inches long, by 2 lines (or by less than 1 line in the more or less convolute 

 innovation leaves), rigid, puberulous on both sides, margin smooth. 



PANICLE oblong, 4-5 inches long, dense, fulvous or ferruginous, _ shining. 

 Kacemes | to almost 1 inch long, rather stout ; joints and pedicels stout, ciliate. 



SPIKELETS crowded, lanceolate. Sessile xpikelet 2-2J lines long, enveloped by 

 rigid hairs. Glumes, lower chartaceous, entire, subobtuse, 2-keeled and 4-ner\ <><1 

 between the keels, which are long ciliate above the middle ; i^tpa- more acute, 

 1-3 nerved, ciliate along the margins and on the keel above the middle. Valves, 

 lower l|-lf line long, lanceolate ; upper very small, ovate, nerveless, tips ciliate. 

 Pale 0. Anthers 1 line long. Grain obovoid, globose, \ line long. Pedicelled 

 *l>ik<.'lets similar but smaller (ig-lf line long), enveloping hairs more copious. 

 Anthers rudimentary, very minute. 



Habitat : NATAL. Drakensberg, near Coldstream, 5500 feet, licJunann 687(3 ; 

 Umpumulo, in marshes, 2000 feet, Buchanan 212 ; Grey town, Wood 7357. 



Drawn and described from specimens gathered near Grey town, Wood 7357. 



The genus Saccharum includes 12 species widely distributed in tropical and 

 subtropical regions of the Old World, one or two only being found in America and 

 West India Islands. The above described species is so far as at present known, 

 the only South African one, and is confined to South Africa. It has been hitherto 

 known as Eriochrysis />allida, Munro. The best known species of this genus is 

 S. officinarum, the " Sugar Cane," but in outward appearance there is little simi- 

 larity between the two plants. 



1, Plant about natural size ; 2, spikelets (sessile and pedicelled) in position on rha- 

 clulla ; 3, lowest glume of sessile spikelet; 3a, lowest glume of pedicalled spikelet : 4. upper 

 glume: 4a, same, ride view j 5, lower valve; 6, upper valve; 7, lodicules:., ovary, stvle, and 

 stamens of ses.-.ile spikelet : 8, same of pedicelled spikelet. E.n-cpt Ji.j. 1, ull ,/,', ,?;,;/'. 



