PLATE 121. 



ANDROPOGON COXTORTUS (Linn. Spec. Plant. 1045). 



PERENNIAL. CULMS erect, strut, simple or branched from the upper nodes, 

 often sheathed all along, 1-3 feet long. Sheaths compressed, keeled, glabrous ; 

 ligules short, truncate, ciliolate. Blades linear, acute or tapering to a long fine 

 point, 3-8 inches long, by l-3 lines wide, flat or channelled, rigid, scabrid, especially 

 above, sparingly hairy at the base or all over. 



RACKMKS 1j,-3 inches long, straight or curved, rhachis tough between the 

 lowest 2-(i pairs, the spikelets of which are male and like the pedicelled of the 

 upper pairs, joints very short, unequally bearded, Senntile spikelets of the hetero- 

 morphous pairs, female, 3-3^ lines long, callus l line long, rufous bearded. 

 Glumes, lower linear-oblong, truncate, shortly hairy, obscurely nerved ; tipper 

 membranous, 3-nerved. Awn stout, 3^-7 inches long, rufous hairy below. Male 

 ,v/*//.v/W.s obliquely lanceolate, 4-5 lines long, dull green. Glumes, lower herbaceous, 

 sub-obtuse, glabrous or hirsute with tubercle based hairs, many nerved, keels 

 unequally winged ; npi>cr 3-nerved. Valves, lower minute ; upper suppressed. 

 Anthers I i line long. 



H&bittit : NATAL. Umsinga and base of Biggarsberg, Buchanan 91 ; near 

 Maritzburg, December, St. <l<><>r</e 3 (Wood 7244). 



Figured from St. George's specimen. 



In the Flora Capensis, Vol. vii., p. 351, a plant collected by Buchanan in 

 0. F. State, and numbered 233, is said to be this plant, but Buchanan's 233 in the 

 Government Herbarium, is a Brachypodium. In the specimen examined we find 

 in the pedicelled spikelets of the heteromorphous pairs, and in both spikelets of 

 the homogamous pairs, that the upper valve is hyaline and 1 -nerved, and the pale 

 equals the lodicules in size. The glumes of the pedicelled spikelets of both pairs, 

 and of the sessile spikelets of the homogamous pairs, are quite glabrous. 



4 



Fi<;-. 1. riant about natural size. Sexsilr spihrlrt 2, lower glume, l>aek view ; 2a, same, 

 front view : 3, upper glume, front, view : 3a, same, side view : 4, lower valve ; 5, upper valve : 

 fi. ovary and stigmas. ]','<ii<T//c<! .^>il<ch't 7, lower glume, front view ; 8, upper glume, front 

 view ; 9, lower valve ; 10, upper valve with lodicules, pale ami stamens. Kfi-ept fy. 1, nil 

 enlaryed. 



