DIPLACHNE, Beauv. 



SPIKELETS shbrtly pedicelled or subsessile, somewhat distant or remote on the 

 simple slender branches of a panicle ; rhachilla disarticulating above the glumes and 

 between the valves, glabrous. Florets 2 to 10, perfect, or the uppermost, reduced. 



GLUMES unequal or subequal, membranous, 1 -nerved, keeled, persistent. Valves 

 oblong to linear-oblong, 2 -toothed or minutely notched, rarely quite entire, muticous 

 or mucronulate from the sinus, very rarely shortly awned from below the apex, 

 membranous, 3-nerved, usually finely ciliate in the lower part of the nerve, or 

 sometimes quite glabrous ; side nerves percurrent or almost (or sometimes very 

 shortly) excurrent Pales 2-keeled, shorter than the valves. Lodicules 2, cuneate, 

 fleshy, nerved. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, slender ; stigmas 

 plumose, laterally exserted. Grain enclosed by the slightly altered valve and pale, . 

 oblong to obovoid-obloug, dorsally compressed, sometimes quite flat, rarely terete ; 

 embryo equalling J to the length of the grain ; hilum punctiform, basal. 



Mostly perennial, tufted, somewhat coarse grasses ; blades long, narrow, flat or 

 involute ; ligules membranous, sometimes reduced to a rim. 



PANICLES consisting of slender, usually long, simple, loosely spike-like and 

 more or less distant branches. 



SPIKELETS light or olive-green, often tinged with purple and dark. 



Species about 12, mainly in the warm regions of the Old World and in North 

 America. 



PLATE No. 410. 



DIPLACHNE FUSCA, Beauv. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 591). 

 Nat. Order Graminese. 



PERENNIAL, glabrous. CULMS tufted, stout, geniculately ascending or erect, 

 often branched from the lower nodes, 3 to 5 feet long, terete, smooth, 3-4-noded, 

 or many noded when branched, internodes enclosed except the uppermost or shortly 

 exserted ; sheaths smooth, almost shining or the upper rough, the basal whitish, 

 slightly compressed, bluntly keeled ; ligules hyaline, oblong, acute, up to 2 lines 

 long ; blades very narrow, linear, tapering to a fine often subpungent point, 3 to 

 inches, by 1 to lj line when expanded, folded or convolute or sometimes flat, 

 rather rigid, rough on both sides, rarely almost smooth below. 



PANICLE erect, straight or slightly nodding, obovate-oblong to linear, con- 

 tracted or open ; rhachis slender, angular, rough ; branches scattered or 2-3 close 

 together, often more or less flexuous, the longest 3 to 5 inches, usually racemose ; 

 pedicels short. 



SPIKELETS distant by half their length or more, narrow, oblong, 3 to 5 lines 

 long, 5 to 10-flowered, usually dark olive-grey, rarely light or whitish. 



GLUMES lanceolate to oblong, obtuse or acute, often obscurely mucronate, the 

 lower about 1 line long, the upper \\ to 2 lines ; valves oblong, tips broad, entire 

 or minutely emarginate, and with a tooth on one or both sides, middle and side- 

 nerves excurrent into a short or obscure rnucro, or only the former, side-nerves 

 silky ciliate below ; callus hardly any, pales minutely 2-toothed, flaps hairy along 

 the keels ; anthers \ line long ; grain oblong, dorsally compressed, up to 1 line 

 long ; embryo almost f the length of thegrain. 



Habitat : NATAL. Clairmont, near Durban, 50 feet alt., Wood 6045. 

 Drawn from Wood's specimen, the only one in the Herbarium. 

 Natal is not credited with this species in the Flora Capensis. 



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

 All enlarged. 



