PEROTIS, Ait. 

 Nat. Order Gramineae. 



spik 

 nidi 

 much shorter than the glumes. 



GLUMES equal, linear or linear-lanceolate, rigidly membranous, 1 -nerved, 

 passing into capillary awns. Valve lanceolate, acute, delicately hyaline, 1 -nerved. 

 Pale very minute, hyaline, nerveless. Lodicules 2, broad, cuneate. Stamens 3. 

 Styles distinct, short ; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. Grain cylindric, 

 slender, exserted from the unchanged floret and enclosed with it in the glumes ; 

 embryo about 5 the length of the grain ; hilum punctiform. basal. 



ANNUAL OR SUBPERENXIAL. CULMS leafy ; blades usually broad, rigid and 

 ciliate ; ligules hyaline; spikes or pseudo-spikes slender, crinite from the long 

 capillary awns. 



Species '2 or 3, in the tropics of the Old World and in subtropical Australia. 



PLATE 403. 



PEROTIS LATIFOLIA, Ait. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 575). 



CULMS fascicled, geniculate, suberect, ascending olteu from a few inches to 1^ 

 inch long, smooth, glabrous, many-noded, lower internodes short, not or slightly 

 exserted, uppermost 1 or 2 by far the longest, long exserted ; leaves rather 

 numerous in the lower j-{ of the culm ; sheaths thin, striate, smooth : ligules vei y 

 delicate, short, ciliolate ; blades linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate from a clasping 

 broad base, acute or acuminate, ^-3 inches by 1^-4 lines, flat or somewhat wavy, 

 glaucous, margins rigidly cihate or Hmbriate, rarely smooth ; spike slender, rigid 

 or llexuous, 3-8 inches long, rather dense ; axis smooth, terete. 



SPIKELETS about 1 line long, linear-lanceolate. 



GI.U.MKS scaberulous, 3-10 lines long, very fine, flexuous, often purplish. 

 Valve less than i line long ; pale under ^ line long ; tip finely ciliolate; anthers 



} line long; grain almost 1 li'te long. 



Habitat: NATA: Xear Durban, below 500 feet, Dreye ; valleys between 

 Tugela and Umpumulo, 1000 feet, BnclmiKd, Ids ; without precise locality, 

 liermrrt 687 ; Van Ueenen, 5000-dOOO feet, \\'<><>d 5!)!K) ; near Durban. W<1. 



Drawn from Wood's 59i)<>. from which the stamens and stigmas had fallen 

 away, these were drawn from Buchanan's 1(!8. 



Fi-T 1. Lo-.vcr jrlunif : 2, upper <rlume : :!. vulvc ; 4. ]>;!< : .'>. pi-til. >t:uniMis iiiul 

 All enlarged. 



