PLATE 122. 



ANDROPOGON NABDUS (Linn. Sp. Plant. 1046), var. validus (Stapf. Fl. Cap. vii. 352). 



PERENNIAL, densely tufted, innovation shoots intravaginal. 



CULMS slender, erect, 4-7 feet long, glabrous, smooth, stout, simple and 

 4-5-noded helow the spurious panicle, longest internodes often 1 foot long, or 

 longer. 



LEAVES mainly crowded near the base. Sheaths tight, glabrous, except the 

 lowermost, which are fugaciously hairy to tomentose at the very base, and 

 9-12 inches long, very firm and persistent, the upper 1-2, much shorter than the 

 internodes; ligules very firm, rounded, up to 2-3 lines long. Blades narrow, 

 linear, very long, tapering to a fine point, 2 feet long, by 2J-4J,- lines wide. Hat, 

 rigid, glabrous, margins scabrid. 



PANICLES more or less compound, spathaceous, usually narrow. (J-12 inches 

 long, with a distant flowering branch below it. Racemes |-;| inch long, finally 

 deflexed or horizontally spreading, subtended by lanceolate, boat-shaped, manv 

 nerved, scarious, often reddish spathes 7-9 lines long, on slender common peduncles, 

 which are 4-8 inches long ; joints and pedicels linear, slender, about I line long, 

 densely hairy along the margins, tips cupular, irregularly toothed. Spikelets of 

 the lowest pair of the sessile raceme male, like the pedicelled ones ; the sessile of 

 all the other pairs perfect. Perfect spikclets lanceolate, 2|-2i lines long, reddish 

 above. Glumes, lower sub-chartaceous, minutely 2-toothed <>r snbacute, dorsally 

 flattened, or slightly depressed, glabrous, keels widened above into narrow or broad. 

 often serrulate, scarious wings, intracarinal nerves 2-4, unequal, evanescent below ; 

 callus short, minutely bearded; iijtj>cr lanceolate, acute or mucronate. 1 -nerved, 

 glabrous, keel narrowly winged. Valves hyaline, loirer lanceolate-linear. l-J-2 lines 

 long, ciliate ; ii^pcr linear, very narrow, bifid, 1^-lf line long, I -nerved, lobes line, 

 ciliate. Awn slender, 6-7 lines long, kneed at or below the middle, glabrous below. 

 Pale 0. Anthers 1 line long. Grain 1|- line long. P<'<ln-<'ll<><l .^n/.-c/cf male, 

 lanceolate acute, 2.y lines long. Glumes, loin-r manv nerved : iij>)>ci- :!-nerved, 

 keels of both scabrid. Valves. Imrcr linear, obtuse, nerveless <>r '_' nerved at the 

 base, 1| line long ; it^pcr 0. Pale 0. 



Habitat: NATAL. Near Durban, \Villi<i,i^<>t t 52; K,-i<*x 87 ; Inanda. Wood 

 H>22; near Maritzburg, Jielmtnm, 7600; Dundee, Green 72. 



A. ^>trt/n.i is a very variable species ; the type is Indian, and lias not been 

 found in South Africa, but we have 3 varieties vi/., m'uyiitatus (Hack.), 

 prolixus (Sta])f), and c<ili<l,>* (Stapf). We find that these varieties run very 

 closely together, so that it is often difficult to distinguish between thorn. Sp 

 mens from Mr. Green, 114 and 87, and Mr. Swanfield's without nunibrr. 

 probably near to the variety iixtiyli/fftit*. The Flora of British India describes 

 > varieties, none of which appear to be identical with the African ones. 



r ig. 1, Culm, ujjper |xirtioii, Icavo and iutlorc-'ccin-c. iiluiut natural si/.c -. L'. |iatl,caml 

 'ii'-i'iiics : 3, joint and pcilicrl. >V.//r /,cr/'i;-t .^ilhrlH 4. lower liinic : .". II]]XT U'liunc. 

 "wervalrej 7, upper valve ; 8, stamens, pistil and lodiculo. J>c<I/'cr//rrl xjii/ir/rt !)'. lower 

 ""': 10, upper glnme ; 11, lower valve. l-:.n-r t >i /!,,. I, all eulargtd. 



