PLATE 119. 



ANDROPOGON HALEPENSIS (Brot. Fl. Lusit. i. 89), var. effusus (Stapf in 

 Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Lid. vii. 183). 



PI:I:K\NIAL, stoloniferous ? CULMS erect, usually very tall, up to 10-1G feet 

 long, stout, simple or scantily branched. Sheaths glabrous, except the minutely 

 silkv nodes, strongly striate ; ligules membranous, short, ciliate, hairy inside. 

 Hindi's linear-lanceolate, or linear from an often rounded base, long tapering to a 

 line [Kiint. 1 _ feet long, -4-2-^ inches broad, flat, glabrous, or with a silky line on 

 the back at the union with the sheath, margins serrulate, midrib stout. 



PANICLE decompound, very large, up to 1| foot long, effuse, nodding, lower 

 branches up to 1 foot long, often undivided to the middle. Khachis and branches 

 oral leas) the ultimate branchlets scabrid and minutely bearded at the nodes. 

 Kacemes ^-i inch long, linear : joints 3-7, more than half as long as the sessile 

 spikelets, more or less ciliate ; pedicels very similar. Sessile spikelets ovate-lanceo- 

 late, '5-4.', lines long, 1-lA -line broad, pale, ultimately sometimes darker or even 

 black, shining. Glumes. l<nrcr more or less hairy, at least on the sides, 7-13-nerved. 

 callus shortiv bearded ; "JIJH'I- lanceolate, acuminate, shining, 5- 7 -nerved. Valves, 

 ><f>j)t'i- broadly oblong or ovate, 2-lobed, half as long as the glumes, ciliate, 1 -nerved. 

 Awn 4-f! lines long, rarely longer, kneed, sometimes reduced to a bristle, or sup- 

 pressed. Pale linear-oblong, slightly shorter than the valve. Anthers l^-'i line 

 long. Grain obovate or obovate-obloug, Jj- shorter than the glumes. ./-W/rr/Av/ 

 spikelets almost as long as the sessile but narrower, male or barren. Glumes, futr< j r 

 herbaceous, glabrous, 5-9-nerved, kee's aculeolate or scabrid; HJIJHT similar, 

 3-5-nerved. Valves, when present hyaline, ciliate, 2-1 -nerved. 



Habitat: NATAL. Near Durban, Drtyr ; banks of Tugela Elver, 

 J!>0 ; Umlaas Iviver. AV^/'XN 184 ; Umhlanga. \\'<><><( 1332, 6064; without precise 

 locality, (rt'n-'/fi/ (jyu ; Zululand, Jenkinson 51. 



Figured from Woods G064, and compared with Jenkinson's specimen. 



Baron F. v. Mueller says of this grass : " Attains a height of 5-6 feet. Not 

 easily repressed in moist ground. A rich perennial grass, often cultivated under 

 the name of ' Cuba grass ' and ' Johnson grass.' It keeps green in the 



beat of summer and is also a winter grass in frost -free localities, is not eaten out 

 by pasture animals ; it will also grow in drift sand of the coast, and will keep 

 growing in the dry season, when most other grasses fail, but improves much on 

 irrigation; the roots resist some frost : three tons can be cut from an acre in a 

 single season. It yields so large a bay crop that it may be cut half a dozen times 

 in a season should the land be rich. All kinds of stock have a predilection for this 

 grass. Much overlooked in its importance lor fixing loose soil <>n embankments. 

 It will mat the soil with its deep and spreading roots, hence it should be kept from 

 cultivated fields. Detrimental to Lucerne in meadows." Our p'ant is a variety of 

 the grass of which Baron v. Mueller writes. 



Ki<r. 1, Plant about natural size ; '2. iharliis ar.d spikclcts. 7W/Vr//W f/iiltrlct :>>. 

 glume; 4, II]>JKT yhmir : .1, upper valve: (i. lo\vir valve: 7, pale and lodieidts. >V .< .</.', 

 .ij> : /</:'rt s, stamens and pistil. Except Jig. 1, all enlarged. 



