ANTHOXANTHUM, LINN. 



SPIKELETS oblong to narrow-lanceolate, slightly laterally compressed ; rhachilla 

 disarticulating above the upper glume, not produced beyond the uppermost floret. 

 Florets 3, heteromorphous, the lower two male or barren, the terminal perfect. 

 Glumes persistent, membranous, 1 to 3-nerved. keeled, acuminate ; upper longer. 

 Lower 2 valves equal and very similar, oblong, emarginate, membranous, strongly 

 laterally compressed, 5 to 7-nerved, keeled, hairy, awned, awn of the lower valve, 

 short from J to halfway below the tip, of the upper longer, kneed, from near the base, 

 rarely from the middle ; terminal valve much shorter than the lower two, broadly 

 elliptic, very thin, delicately 7 to 1 -nerved. Pales of the lower two florets, if present, 

 2-keeled, of the terminal 1 -nerved. Lodicules 0. Stamens 3 in the male, 2 in 

 the perfect florets. Styles distinct, long, stigmas long, exserted from the top of the 

 spikelet, plumose. Grain ovoid, slightly laterally compressed ; hilum punctiform ; 

 embryo | the length of the grain. 



PERENNIAL OR ANNUAL ; blades flat, usually flaccid ; panicle slender, very 

 narrow or spike-like, sometimes reduced to scanty racemes ; sweet scented. 

 Species 15. 



PLATE 188. 

 ANTHOXANTHUM ECKLONII, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. V]L, p. 466). 



Nat. Order Graminese. 



PERENNIAL. CULMS tufted, erect, simple, 1 to 3 feet long, smooth, glabrous 

 or scaberulous, finely striate, about 3-noded ; internodes gradually longer from the 

 base, up to 1 foot or more long : sheaths rather tight, smooth or scabrid, rarely 

 reversedly hispidulous, striate, usually very much shorter than the internodes except 

 the lowest, the basal one or two bladeless, acute ; ligules scarious, white, ovate, 

 obtuse, 1 to 2 lines long; blades linear, gradually tapering, acute, up to 3 inches 

 by 1 to Ij line, the upper very short, rather rigid, glabrous, smooth or scabrid, 

 rarely reversedly hispidulous, prominently many nerved. 



PANICLE erect, spike-like, sometimes interrupted near the base, up to 2 inches 

 long, shiny, pallid ; rhachis glabrous ; pedicels with spreading hairs. 



SPIKELETS oblong-lanceolate, 3J to 4 lines long, pallid. 



GLUMES lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate (in profile), acuminate, scaberulous on 

 the keels, lower 2| to 3 lines long, 1-nerved, hyaline, upper 3 to 4 lines long, 3 

 {very rarely 1-) nerved, subhyaline. Florets, lowest male or barren ; valve about 

 2 J lines long, 5-nerved, with a short straight awn from above the middle ; inter- 

 mediate floret equal and very similar to the preceding, always empty, with a kneed 

 awn 4 lines long from below the middle ; uppermost floret perfect, 1 to l line long ; 

 valve 5-nerved ; anthers 1^ to 1 J line long ; grain f line long. 



Habitat : NATAL. Iliet Vlei, 4000-5000 feet alt., Buchanan 158. 

 Drawn from Buchanan's 158, the only specimen in the Herbarium. 



Fig 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, lowest valve ; 4, intermediate valve ; 5, upper 

 valve ; 6, pale. All enlarged. 



