PLATE 408. 



SPOROBOLUS IXDICUS, R. Br. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 586). 

 Nat. Order Gramineaj. 



PEREXXIAL, tufted. CULMS erect, 2 to 3 feet long, glabrous, smooth, usually 

 2-noded below the middle, sheathed all along or the upper nodes exserted. 



LEAVES mostly crowded near the base, often numerous; sheaths glabrous 

 except at the often ciliate margins, smooth, the lowest sometimes compressed, short, 

 broad, pallid, the upper tight ; ligule a minutely ciliolate riia ; blades linear, long 

 tapering to a fine point, 4 to almost 12 inches, by 1 to l lines, usually convolute, 

 glabrous, smooth. 



PANICLE erect, spike-like, slender, often interrupted below; branches solit.trv. 

 often irregularly crowded, very short and adpressed to the rhachis, or the lowest 

 up to 1 inch long, filiform, smooth or scaberulous ; lateral pedicels very short. 



SPIKELETS dark olive-green, crowded, 1 line long. 



GLUMES unequal, the lower oblong or elliptic, obtuse, often denticulate, about 

 J the length of the spikelet, nerveless, the upper ovate-oblong, acute or subacute, 

 about f the length of the spikelet, sometimes 1 -nerved. Valve lanceolate-oblong, 

 acute or acuminate, 1 -nerved. Pale scarcely shorter. Stamens 3 ; anthers J lint- 

 long ; grain ellipsoid, truncate, quadrangular, slightly compressed, i line long. 

 brown, pericarp thin. 



Habitat: NATAL. Geirard 588 ; Zululand, Jenkinson 6 (Wood 7303). 



Var. laxus (Stapf), usually more robust; panicle looser, ^ to 1^ foot long : 

 branches more distant, longer, more or less spreading ; spikelets often secund : " all 

 over the Colony." 



Buchanan 243 ; near Durban, Williamson 2, 101 ; at the borders of 

 woods near the Umlazi River, A'mnss 7, partly ; between the Umzimkulu and 

 Umkomanzi Rivers, Dreye. 



Drawn from Jenkinson's 6 (Wood 7303). 



Jenkinson says of this grass : " Used for cattle, seeds much liked by birds 

 and poultry." 



Fig 1, Lower glume; 2, upper glume ; 3, valve ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens anclloclicule*. 

 All enlarged. 



