PLATE 170. 



SETARIA GERRARDII, Stapf. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VII , p. 424). 

 Nat. Order Gramineae. 



PERENNIAL, rhizome short, pi-remorse, oblique. CULMS erect, 2^ to 3j feet 

 long, compressed below, villous close to the panicle, otherwise smooth and glabrous, 

 2 to 4-noded, internodes usually long exserted, except the lowest. Sheaths tight, 

 striate, glabrous except on the ciliate margins and very finely silky nodes, lower 

 compressed, keeled, pallid or purplish, firm, persistent, fugaciously hairy at the 

 base, 2 to <> inches long ; ligule a very densely and long ciliate rim. Blades 

 narrow, linear, tapering to a very long fine point, over ] foot by 1^ to 2 lines 

 (unfolded), usually folded or invo'ute above, fiexuous, glaucous, glabrous, margins 

 cartilaginous, scabrid. 



PANICLE spike-like, cylindric, dense, 1 J to 3 inches, by 3 to 4 lines ; axis 

 Bubvillous, branches reduced to subsessile clusters of 2-3 spikelets or to a single 

 spikelet, each spikelet subtended by a fascicle of 3 4 or, if solitary, by 6-8 slender 

 snbfiexuous bristles, 4-6 lines long, purple from the middle, scabrid all along, 

 pedicels very short, tips discoid. 



SPIKELETS obliquely ovoid, 1^ to 1J line long, whitish, glabrous. 



GLUMES firmly membranous, lower one ovate, acute, about half as long as the 

 spikelet, 5-nerved ; upper one oblong, very concave, subapiculate, shorter than 

 the spikelet by ^, 7-nerved ; lower floret male ; valve equalling or slightly exceed- 

 ing the upper floret, oblong, 5-nerved, subapiculate ; pale equal to the valve. 

 Perfect floret elliptic-oblong, slightly beaked, Ij line long; valve very convex, 

 5-nerved, very finely honeycombed, pallid, sometimes with a dark spot near the 

 tip. Anthers almost 1 line long. 



H&bitat: NATAL. Without precise locality, Gerrard 681; Buchanan 224 ; 

 Umhlanjja, May, Wood 6063; Zululand, January, Jenkinson 59 (Wood 7338) ; 

 ), Dundee, March. 



Fig. I, Cluster of spike'ets ; 2, lower glume ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valve; 5, pale: 

 6, stamens and lodicules ; 7, upper valve ; 8, pale ; J, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All 

 eulnr</ed. 



