I' 



"r. 



PLATE 125. 



ANDROPOGON HIRTUS (Linn. Sp. Plant. 104G). 



PERENNIAL, tufted ; innovation shoots mostly intravaginal. 



CULMS erect, rather slender, 1-3 feet long, glabrous, simple or more or less 

 inched and 3-(!-noded below the panicle, longest intenic.de generally less than 

 foot long. Sheaths tight, glabrous, the lowest crowded, compressed, firm, per- 

 stei it, the upper terete, shorter than the internodes ; ligules oblong, obtuse, up 

 ) I !, line long. Blades narrow, linear, tapering to a long fine point, 4 inches to 

 lore than 1 foot long, by f-1^ line wide, glabrous, finely scaberulous, more or less 

 1 vucous, turning reddish, midrib white. 



PANICLE spathaceous, lax, contracted, sometimes reduced to a few simple 



Branches ; (i inches to more than I foot long. Racemes f-l|- inch long, silvery 

 villous, on very slender, usually nodding, pubescent or villous, rarely glabrous 

 peduncles, which are 1-3 lines long, and more or less exserted from the long, very 

 narrow, finely acuminate, glabrous or scantily hairy, reddish spathes ; joints 

 ''liform, obliquely truncate, up to 2 lines long, densely ciliate. Pedicels very 



imilar. often produced (in the South African species) into a linear or subulate 

 appendage facing the upper glume. Spikelets of the lowest pair of the sessile 



aceme alike, male, the sessile of all the other pairs perfect, the pedicelled male. 



''I'rfi'ct .-;[ !,<! ft* linear -oblong, 2-3 lines long, pale or purplish. Glumes, Ivirrr 

 chartaceous, minutely truncate, dorsally flattened, villous, keels obscure except 

 close to the membranous reddish tips, intracarinal nerves about 5, evanescent 

 below : ii/ijH-r lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, mucronate, 3-nerved, margins ciliate, 

 keel hirsute above. Valves, /oircr hyaline, linear-oblong, obtuse, faintly 2-nerved, 

 softlv ciliate : upper very narrow, linear, bifid, about 1^ line long, ciliate, base, 

 margins and lobes hyaline. Awn stout, pubescent, 1-14^ inch long, kneed below 

 the middle. Pale very minute or 0. Anthers -1 line long. Pedicelled s/iiki'/ctx 

 lanceolate, 2.',-3 lines long. (llni::es. loirer herbaceous, 7-11-nerved, mucronate or 

 short Iv awjK-d : nj>j,cr lanceolate-oblong, acute. 3-nerved, softly ciliate. Valves, 

 lower -AS in the perfect spikelets, but l-.'!-nerved ; upper linear, ciliate, nerveless, 

 usually much shorter than the lower or obsolete. 



Habitat: NATAL. <!ci'mr<l G70, (>74 ; car. podotrichus, Umpumulo, 



Buchanan ; Riet Vlei, ]}m-lt>niH : Biggarsberg, Relnnann 7120, 7121 ; Farkkop, 



Rehmann 7<>G8 ; without precise locality, l>"cl><uian 62, 121 ; near Durban, 



'/. (i050 



Drawn from Wood's specimen. 



Found all over Africa, also in Canary Islands and Madeira. 



Peduncles having long tubercle-based hairs occur occasionally in the typical 



in the Cape. 



Fitf. 1, Plant natural si/e : 2, spathe witli 2-nate racemes. .SV.//r x/>iftrlet 3, lower 

 glume, back view: 4, upper ylnine. side view : .1. lower valve, front view : l>. upper valve: 

 7, ovary, stamens, and lodiculcs. Pedicelled spikclet S. lower "-hune. front view: !(. upper 

 ,!i'liiine. front \ lew : 10, lower valve, front view : 11. upper valve. I'J.n-c/i/ ^'</. 1. nil ml/inicil. 





