PLATE 106. 



ERIANTHUS- CAPENSIS (Nees. Fl. Af'r. Austr. 93, excl. var. B). 



CULMS up to 3 feet and more long, stout, sheathed nearly all along, glabrous. 

 Sheaths glabrous or scantily and appressedly hirsute near the margins. Ligules 

 about 1 line long, rounded.' Blades broadly linear from a narrow base, tapering to 

 a long acute point, flat, firm, smooth, green, densely bearded at the base inside, 

 otherwise glabrous ; 1-3 feet long, 4-6 lines wide. 



PANICLE 1-1 J foot long, linear-oblong, usually sheathed at the base, much 

 branched, branches and branchlets sub-erect, filiform, like the rhachis quite glabrous, 

 the lowest 3-4 rarely 6 inches long. 



RACEMES obscurely articulate, tough, joints equalling or exceeding the spikelets, 

 be;mled at base. Pedicels unequal, one very short, the other almost as long as the 

 spikelet, both filiform. 



SPIKELETS oblong to oblong-lanceolate, pale or reddish brown, loosely hairy. 

 2-2 J lines long, the hairs about \ line long. Glumes chartaceous, the lower 

 minutely 2-toothed, usually with 2 intracarinal nerves, the upper broadly lanceolate, 

 boat-shaped, sub-acute, 3-nerved, keeled. Valves, lower lanceolate, about as long 

 as the lower glume, hyaline above, 1-3-nerved, ciliate ; iippcr linear-oblong, acutely 

 bifid, 3-nerved, ciliate, 1-1^ line long. Awn 2-4 lines long ; column short. Pale 

 very small, long, ciliate. Lodicules cuneate, ciliate. 



Edibit&t: NATAL. Among reeds by Umlaas River, Kranx* 159; feeder of 

 Tugela River, 1000 feet alt., Rnchanan 271 ; Zululand, Jenkinson 82. 



Figured from Jenkinson's specimens, the only ones in the Government 

 Herbarium. 



A genus of 20 or more species, mostly tropical, the one here described being 

 so far as at present known the only one found in Natal. It is a coarse grass and 

 of little if any use for pastures. Usually, I think, found in moist places, and in 

 large clumps. The native name is um-Tala, and it is often used by them for 

 thatching purposes. 







MU. I. Portion of inflorescence and leaf, natural size; 2, lower jrluine : 3, upper fjluine ; 

 4, lower valve ; .">, upper valve : fi, stamens and pistil. Krcrpt fij. l,all enhinjed. 



