PLATE No. 419. 



ERAGROSTIS GANGETICA, Steud. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 617). 

 Nat, Order Gramineae. 



PEREXNIAL, tufted. CULMS geniculate, suberect or erect, rather stout, simple 

 or branching below, 1 to 3 feet long, glabrous, smooth, about 4-noded, upper 

 internodes exsertsd. 



LEAVES few at the base of each culm ; sheaths glabrous except at the often 

 bearded mouth, smooth, firm, upper tight, lowest persistent ; ligule a very minutely 

 ciliolate rim ; blades linear, tapering to an acute or setaceous point, 2 to 6 inches 

 by 1J to 2 lines, flat or more often involute, rather rigid, glabrous, smooth below, 

 densely scaberulous and whitish above. 



PANICLE oblong, 2 to 6 inches long, rarely shorter or longer, generally 

 contracted, often nodding, or the lower branches spreading ; axis smooth below ; 

 branches solitary, rather distant, lower up to 4 inches long, more or less flexuous, 

 filiform, scaberulous, the lowest undivided for \ to 1 inch or like the rest divided 

 from near the base, their branchlets usually short and bearing shortly pedicelled 

 crowded spikelets. 



SPIKELETS linear-oblong to linear, up to 8 lines by I line, sometimes rather 

 flexuous, usually olive-grey to leaden-grey, 8 to 30-flowered ; rhachilla persistent, 



GLUMES subeo.ua], ovate-oblong, acute, up to 1 line long, 1 -nerved, deciduous. 

 Valves obliquely oblong, acute to subobtuse, to i line long, side-nerves slender, 

 prominent, keels scaberulous above ; pales deciduous, slightly shorter than the 

 valves, keels scabrid. Anthers f to f line long ; grain oblong, tf line by ^-5 line, 

 brown. 



Ha.Mt&t : NATAL. Near Durban, Williamson Gl ; moist sandy soil near 

 Pinetown, Buchanan 1 1 5 ; Umpumulo, 2000 feet alt., Buchanan 254 ; Clairmont 

 50 feet alt., Wood 7262 ; and without precise locality, (r'errard C>72. 



Also in tropical Africa and throughout tropical Asia. 



In Australia this grass is said to be a valuable fodder plant, " palatable and 

 nutritious, and unaffected by drought." 



Fi.u r 1, Lower glume : 2, upper glume ; 3, valve ; 3a. valve iu profile ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, 

 st-.unens and lodicules. All 



