LEITOCARYDION, Hochst. ex Benth 



SPIKELETS 4 to 8-flowered, laterally compressed, sessile or subsessile, secund 

 bisenate, close, on a very slender rhachis ; rhachilla disarticulating above the 

 glumes and between the valves. Florets bisexual, the uppermost reduced. 



GLUMES subequal, lanceolate, acuminate, 1 -nerved, keeled. Valves oblong, 

 truncate, minutely 4-toothed (teeth hyaline), thin, 3-nerved, margins innexedi 

 nerves cihate, the middle nerve excurrent into a fine bristle, the side-nerves not 

 excurrent; callus slender, acute bearded. Pales linear-oblong, slightly shorter 

 than the valves, 2-keeled. Lodicules 2, cuneate, delicate Stamens 3 "; anthers 

 minute. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, slender ; stigmas laterally exserted, very 

 slender, plumose. Grain linear, obtusely triquetrous, tightly embraced by the 

 scarcely changed valve and pale, free ; embryo less than J the "length of the grain ; 

 hilum basal, punctiform. 



Species 3, in Africa. Allied to Triraphis, but differing in the non-excurrent 

 side-nerves and the sessile unilateral spiktlets. 



ANNUAL CULMS tufted, many-noded ; blades linear to oblong-lanceolate, 

 ligule hyaline, very short or obscure. Panicle spike-like, dense; branches erect, 

 simple or with adpressed branchlets. 



PLATE 442. 



LEI>TUCARYDION VULPIASTRUM, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. Vll., p. G48). 



Nat. Order Gramineai. 



CULMS erect or ascending, 2 to 4 feet long, simple or sometimes branched 

 (branches iritra vaginal), many-noded, internodes shortly exserted, glabrous, smooth ; 

 sheaths tight, glabrous, smooth or somewhat rough, striate ; ligule up to line 

 long, truncate, ciliolate, soon evanescent ; blades lanceolate-oblong from a rounded 

 abruptly constricted base, acute, 1 to 3 inches, by 3 to 6 lines, flat or involute, 

 smooth or finely scaberulous below, glaucescent, finely many-nerved, primary 

 nerves about 7 on each side. 



PANICLE spike-like, 2 to 8 inches by ^ to f inch, pallid or faintly purplish, very 

 dense ; branches up to 1 inch long, branched from the villous base ; branchlets 5 to 

 1-spiculate, up to 3 lines long. 



SPIKELETS crowded, adpressed, 5 to ( J-Howered, up to 3 lines long ; rhachilla 

 very slender. 



GLUMES reddish, subhyaline, the loircr lanceolate, acuminate, mucronate, about 

 1} line long; the -upper linear-oblong, about If line long. Valves \\ line long, 

 pubescent below the middle, long and finely ciliate along the side-nerves. Anthers 

 \ line long, ovate ; grain linear, obtusely triquetrous, less than J line by less than 

 g line. 



Also in tropical East Africa as far north as Usambara. 



Habitat : NATAL. Banks of Tugela and its tributaries, GOO to 1000 feet alt., 

 187. 



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

 All enlarged. 



