SPOROBOLUS, K. Br. 



SPIKELETS usually very small, variously panicled, continuous on the pedicels : 

 rhachilla more or less readily disarticulating above the glumes, not continued or 

 very rarely produced into a bristle. Floret 1, perfect. 



GLUMES 2, delicately membranous, lower usually smaller, nerve'ess, upper 

 1 -nerved, falling away one after the other. Valve more or less resembling the 

 upper glume, 1 -nerved or more or less distinctly 3-nerved. Pale usually almost as 

 long as the valve, 2-nerved, folded between the nerves, often split by the maturing 

 gram. Lodicules 2, small, broadly cuneate, glabrous, thin. Stamens 3, rarely 

 2. Ovary glabrous ; styles short, distinct, terminal ; stigmas plumose or su'basper- 

 gilliform. Grain free, falling out or retained and dehiscing ; pericarp thin, usually 

 swelling in water, rigid, dehiscing, or the inner layers mucilaginous when wetted, 

 and adherent, or the whole pericarp adnateand indistinct ; hilum small, punctiform' 

 basal, embryo rather large. 



ANNUALS OR PERENNIALS of various habits ; ligules reduced to a ciliate or 

 ciliolate rim. 



PANICLES contracted to spike-like, or more or less open, sometimes extremely 

 lax ; spikelets mostly J to 1 line long. 



PLATE 405. 



SPOROBOLUS FESTIVUS, Hochst. var stuppeus, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII, p. 582). 



Nat. Order Qraminese. 



PERENNIAL, compactly tufted. CULMS erect or geniculate-ascending, slender, 

 4 to 1 foot long, glabrous, smooth, 2 or 3-noded ; upper sheaths glabrous except at 

 the ciliate margins, smooth, the lower short, firm, at length breaking up into 

 numerous persistent fibres, about J inch long, the inner covered with pallid tow-like 

 hairs ; ligules a minutely ciliolate or almost woolly rim ; "blades narrowly linear, 

 tapering to an acute point, usually setaceously convolute, 1-2 inches long, rarely 

 more, by 1 line (when expanded), glabrous, smooth. 



PANICLE oblong to ovate, erect, 2 to 4 inches, by 1 to 1 inch, lax : rhachis 

 straight ; branches solitary or irregularly fascicled, at length spreading, filiform to 

 capillary, repeatedly branched from near the base ; secondary branchlets flexuous, 

 capillary ; pedicels extremely fine, smooth, 2 to 3 times the length of the spikelets, 

 rarely longer. 



SPIKELETS oblong, rather obtuse, purplish, f line long or rather less. 



GLUMES hyaline, acute or acuminate, minutely denticulate, the lower oblong, 

 nerveless, almost half the length of the spikelet, the vpper ovate, nerveless or 

 faintly 1 -nerved, about half the length of the spikelet. Valve oblong, obtuse or 

 subacute in profile, 1 to sub-3-nerved. Pale slightly shorter. Stamens 3; anthers 

 g line long ; grain globose-ellipsoid, line long, pericarp swelling and bursting in 

 water ; seed free, compressed, obtusely Quadrangular ; albumen glassy 



Habitat : NATAL. Umsinga and base of Biggarsberg, Buchanan 96 ; near 

 Maritzburg, St. George, 25 ( \Yood 7230). 



Drawn from Wood's 7236, the only specimen in the Herbarium. No stamens 

 could be found in the specimen drawn from. 



Fig 1, Lower glume; 2, upper glume; 3, valve; 4, pale; 5, pi>til ami lodiciilc^. All 

 cti/nri/fd. 



