MlCBOCHLOA R. Br. 



SPIKELETS 1-2-flowered, small, sessile, crowded, unilateral on a flattened rhacliis. 



Alternating 2 -seriate from near the margins of the rhaehis, or in a single row ; 

 rhachilla disarticulating above the gl nines, more or less produced. Floret herma- 

 phrodite, or if 2, the lower hermaphrodite, the iipper male or indicated by an empty 

 valve. 



GLUMES 2, persistent or (particularly the upper) deciduous, strongly 1 -nerved, 

 flattened from the back or keeled, subequal. Valve shorter than the glumes, delicate, 

 white, minutelv or obscurely mucronulate or emarginate, 3-nerved, densely hairy along 

 the nerves (if 2, the upper glabrous) ; callus small, acute hairy. Pale slightly shorter 

 than the valve or almost equal, 2 -'keeled. Lodicules 2, cuneate, glabrous, thin, faintly 

 nerved. Stamens 3, ovary glabrous (quite suppressed in the upper floret) : styles 

 distinct; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. (iraiu oblong, terete, triquetrous or 

 compressed, embraced by the unchanged valve and pale, free ; hilum punctiform ; 

 embryo equalling J-J the length of the grain. 



PEKEXXIAL, rarely annual, sometimes densely tufted ; leaves narrow, often 

 subsetaceous ; ligule reduced to a minutely ciliolate rim ; spikes solitary, terminal (in 

 the African species) or 2-4 in a terminal umbel, straight or curved. 



Species 7, widely distributed through the tropics, 3 in Africa, 3 in Australia. 



PLATE 431. 



MJCUOCIILOA CAFFUA, Xees. (FJ. Cap., Vol. VII... p. (!3(i). 

 Xat. Order Gratnineaj. 



PEHEXXIAL, compactly ca'spitose. CULMS erector geniculate-erect, very slender, 

 simple, -| to 1 foot long, compressed below, 1 to 2-noded, glabrous, smooth, internodes 

 exserted, the uppermost by far the longest. 



LEAVES crowded at the base ; sheaths tight or the uppermost subtumid, glabrous 

 or ciliate at the mouth, smooth, the lowest persistent, breaking up into fibres ; 

 blades subsetaceous, with an acute or callous ]x>int, J to (J inches long, folded, firm, 

 often curved, glabrous or scantily hairy near the base, smooth, margins rough. Spike 

 solitary, 2 to 3j inches long, usually curved, often purple, margins of the rhaehis 

 ciliolate. 



SPIKELETS 1 -flowered, divergent and biseriate or imbricate and more or less 

 uniseriate, slightly dorsally compressed, 1| to ~2\ lines long, glabrous. 



GLUMES lanceolate-oblong, acute or the upper acuminate, the lower asymmetric, 

 slightly longer. Valve minutely cuspidate, U, line long, densely hairv along the 

 nerves except at the very tip ; keels of pale scabrid, ciliolate above the middle. 

 Anthers not quite 1 line long. (Train terete, over ^ line long. 



Habitat : NATAL. Riet Vlei, 4000-, r >000 feet alt., Buchanan KJ2 ; South 

 Downs, \Veeneu County, 4000 feet alt,, Wood 4403 ; Benvie, 3000-4000 feet alt., 

 Wood (J007 ; Pietermaritxburg, Wood 7220. 



Fig 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, valve ; 4, pale : 5, pistil, stamens and lodiruk's. 

 All cnlurt/cd. 



