PLATE 432. 



MrcnooHLOA ALTEHA, Stapf, var. Nelscmii, Stapf. (Fl. Oap., Vol. VTT. p. 637). 



Nat. Order Graminefe. 



PERENNIAL, densely crespitose. CULMS erect, very slender, simple, 8 to 10 

 inches long, compressed below, 2-noded, glabrous or woolly, upper 2 internodes 

 vrrv long, exstrted. 



LEAVES mainly crowded at the base ; sheaths tight or scantily woolly, the 

 basal compressed, keeled, very narrow, persistent, at length breaking up into 

 fibres ; blades setaceous, folded, acute, scarcely distinct from the sheaths, :5 to G 

 inches long, glabrous, smooth. Spike solitary, | to 1 inch long, usually straight ; 

 rhachis glabrous. 



SPIKELETS 2-flowered, dorsal ly and obliquely compressed, uniseriate or biseriate, 

 -} lines long, glabrous, brown. 



GLUMES lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, the lower slightly longer and asymmetric, 

 the upper firmer. Floi'ets, lower hermaphrodite ; valve minutely bilobed, l line 

 long, ciliate along the nerves; pale glabrous, keels very finely scabrid above; 

 ii/i/x'i' Horet barren, slightly smaller ; valve and pale glabrous, more delicate, the 

 latter often reduced or quite suppressed. Grain 1 line long. 



Habitat: NATAL. ?iet Vlei, 4000-5000 feet alt., Rm-lnman Ifi3; Zululand, 

 2000 to MOOO feet alt,, Wood 7^04 (Jod-iiium 44). 



Fig 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, valve of lower floret ; 4, pale of same ; o, valve 

 of upper floret ; f>, pale of same ; 7, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 



