PLATE 116. 



AXDROPOGON AMPLEOTENS (Nees. Fl. Afr. Austr. 104). 



PERENNIAL, densely tufted. CULMS erect, slender, 2-2% feet long, glabrous, 

 3-5-noded, simple or with 1-3 flowering branches from the upper nodes. 



LEAVES mostly crowded at the base. Sheaths terete, tight, glabrous, lowest 

 widened, sub-persistent ; ligules membranous, short, truncate or rounded. Blades 

 linear, tapering to a long setaceous point, broad, rounded at the base, or subcordatfi 

 and subamplexicaul, 4-8 inches long, 3-5 lines wide, flat or convolute above, rather 

 firm, glabrous, margins scabrid. 



RACEMES 2-nate, rather slender, 2-3^ inches long, strict or subflexuous ; joints 

 and pedicels very similar, sublinear, 3 lines long, shortly ciliate along the margins. 

 tips hollowed, denticulate. Sessile spikelets laterally compressed, wedged in 

 between the pedicel and the joint, 3^-4 lines long, glabrous, callus short, acute, 

 bearded, sunk in the hollows of the preceding joint. Glumes coriaceous, Imn-r 

 linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 2-toothed, keels rounded and broad below, acute and 

 scabrid near the tips, with a distinct groove (fold) extending between them to the 

 acumen, and with 2 fine lateral furrows in the upper third ; ii/>j>er 1 -nerved. 

 mucronate or aristulate. Valves subequal ; loiver lanceolate, 3-nerved, softly 

 ciliate ; itpper linear-lanceolate, deeply bifid, lobes lanceolate, ciliolate. Awii 

 stout, 1^-2 inches long, kneed and pubescent below the middle. Pale linear-oblong. 



1 line long, nerveless, ciliate. Anthers 2^ lines long. Pcdiccf/wl xpikcli't* male, 

 dorsally compressed or subterete, lanceolate, 5-G lines long. Glumes subherbaceons. 

 acuminate, often aristulate ; lower acutely 2-keeled, keels scabrid or rigidly ciliate 

 above, intracarinal nerves many (to 19), middle nerve stronger ; tipper linear- 

 lanceolate, 3-sub-5-nerved, ciliate. Valves linear, 3-nerved ; hnrcr acuminate, 

 4| lines long, ciliate: upper 3 lines long, 2-toothed, muticous. Pale linear, 



2 lines long, nerveless. 



Habitat: NATAL. Umpumulo, Buchanan 194 ; (r'crrard 769 ; liiH-fianan \ HI. 

 partly : near Maritzburg. St. (Icorye 33. 



Fig. 1, Plant about natural si/e : 2, joint of rhachis. l\ii;<-cU<-il x]>il-let- -3, hnvcr 

 jlumc, front view:; 4, upper glume, front view ; ,'>, ii])pi-i- valve, front view : (i. pali-. .SV.s.v/A 

 tpikelet- 7. lower rlinno, back view; 8, upper ulmne, side view : 9. lower valve, front view ; 

 10, upper valve, front view ; 11, stamens, stigmas and lodicules ; 12, i)ale. K.rrei>t firi. 1, // 

 enlarged, 



NOTE. The upper valve of pediceHed spikelet is 2-toothed, not inuemnate as shown in 

 tlic drawing. 



