POGONARTHRIA, Stapf 



SPIKELETS laterally compressed, subsessile, more or less imbricate, secund on 

 the irregularly spirally arranged branches of a panicle ; rhachilla disarticulating 

 above tha glumes and between the valves, tips of the joints ciliate. Florets 2 to 8 

 perfect. 



GLUMES rigidly membranous, 1 -nerved. Valves oblong, rigidly membranous, 

 acuminate, quite glabrous, 3-nerved ; side-nerves evanescent above the middle! 

 Pales 2-keeled, slightly shorter than the valves. Lodicules 2, minute, delicate. 

 Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct ; stigmas plumose. Grain tightly 

 embraced by the scarcely altered valve and pale, linear-oblong, obtusely triquetrous 

 or oval in cross section ; embryo less than J the length of the grain ; hilum basal, 

 punctiform. 



PERENNIAL, stiff; blades rigid, usually convolute; ligule a fringe of cilia ; 

 panicles straight, with spreading more or less curved branches in irregular spirals ; 

 spikelets secund, crowded, livid, purplish or dark grey. 



Species 1, in tropical South-East Africa, and in extra-tropical South Africa. 



Hackel, who described the only species of this genius under Leptochloa, has 

 already remarked that it differs considerably from all other species of Leptochloa. 

 The differences exist mainly in the coarse rigid habit and in the structure of the 

 spikelets, the glumes and valves of which are more rigidly membranous, livid 

 purplish or dark grey, and quite glabrous, whilst the tips of the rhachilla joints 

 are ciliate ; the valves resemble more those of Eragrostis than of Leptochloa, and 

 the affinity of the genus lies most certainly with the former. 



PLATE 409. 



POGONARTHRIA FALCATA, Rendle. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 589). 



Nat. Order Graminepe. 



PERENNIAL, cajspitose, quite glabrous except the mouth of the sheath. 



CULMS strictly erect or subgeniculate, 1 to 2j feet long, terete, smooth, about 

 3-noded, internodes exserted ; sheaths tight, terete, smooth, mouth bearded ; ligule 

 a fringe of minute cilia ; blades linear, setaceously attenuated, 4 to 8 inches, by 1 

 to 2 lines, flat or more often convolute, rigid, subglaucous, quite smooth, striate. 



PANICLE linear, 4 to 10 inches, by J to 2 inches, usually straight ; rhachis 

 sulcate, scaberulous ; branches often 2 to 5 close together, more or less spreading, 

 usually curved, up to 1 inch long, flat on the back, wavy, simple, bearing spikelets 

 from the base, scabrid. 



SPIKELETS 1^ to 3 lines long, livid, purplish or dark grey; rhachilla joints 

 up to J line long. 



GLUMES lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong, reddish, subacuminate, scaberulous, 

 hnrer g to J line long, upper f to 1 line long. Valves lanceolate in profile, oblong 

 when expanded, acutely acuminate or mucronulate, 1 line long ; callus very minute, 

 obtuse, glabrous; pales 1 line long ; keels scabrid ; lodicules ^ line long; anthers 

 ;? to ^ line long ; grain linear-oblong, oval in cross section, line long. 



Habitat : NATAL. Tugela River, 600 feet alt., Buchanan 242 ; Umlaas Drift, 

 Wood 1910 ; near Dundee, IP. E. Green 98 (Wood 7453). 



Also in tropical South Africa as far as the Zambesi. 



Fig 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper gltune ; 3, valve ; 4, pale : 5, pistil, stamens and lodieuli-. 



./// f/iliin/ciL 



