KlIUHAKTA, Thllllb. 



SPIKELETS laterally compressed, panicled or racemed, sometimes solitary, jrcdicelled ; 

 rhachilla disarticulating ))elo\v the valves, more or less obscurely produced. Florets 

 3 ; lower '1 reduced to empty valves, uppermost hermaphrodite. 



(iLi'MKs persistent, membranous. Valves 3, heteromorphous ; the hirer 2 

 empty, usually exceading the glumes, more or less cartilaginous, often bearded, and 

 the upper with a callous ap]>cndage at, the base, awnless or awned ; the uppermost 

 fertile, smaller, thinner, awnless, sometimes with a knob-like appendage at the base 

 forming a hinge with the appendage of the upper empty valve. Pale narrow, keeled, 

 finely 2 -nerved, nerves very close. Lodicules >. Stamens (5 or 3, very rarely 1. Styles dis- 

 tinct, short ; stigmas plumose or brush-like, exserted above the base. Grain elliptic, much 

 compressed : hilum a tine line almost as long as the grain ; embryo about \ of the grain. 



PERENNIALS OK AXNTALS of very varied habit, sometimes bulbous at the base or 

 suffretescent ; blades flat or convolute, sometimes much reduced or suppressed : 

 ligules membranous, usually short or reduced to a narrow rim ; panicle or racemes 

 sometimes very scanty or even reduced to solitary spikelets. 



Species >"> in South Africa, one of them also in a slightly different form in East 

 Africa, tropical Arabia, the Mascarene Islands, and India (here probably introduced). 



PLATE 446. 



EHBHARTA ERECTA, Lam., var. natalensis, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 671). 



Nat. Order Graininere. 



PERENNIAL. CTLMS tufted, geniculate-ascending from a procumbent often 

 copiously branched base, slender, weak or wiry below, up to '2 feet long, glabrous, very 

 rarelv reversedly pubescent below the nodes, smooth, 5 to (j-noded, sheaths tight, the 

 lowest ultimately slipping from the culm, glabrous, rarely finely hairy, smooth ; 

 ligules obtuse or truncate, up to 3 lines long ; blades linear from a clasping often 

 timbriate base, gradually tapering, '2 to (i inches by 1 to 5 lines, flat, flaccid, glabrous, 

 rarelv hairv, smooth or subseaberulous, margins often wavy, scabrid or ciliate. 



PANICLE erect or nodding, narrow, "2 to 8 inches long, loose, sometimes reduced 

 to a raceme : branches distant, the lowest 2-3-nate, very unequal, the longest up to 1 

 to .'> inches, erect or spreading, simple or sparingly branched, filiform to almost capil- 

 larv. rtexuous, glabrous or scaberulous above ; pedicels capillary, scaberulous to puber- 

 ulous, up to 4 lines or more long. 



SIMKELKTS light green, oblong, 1| to '2 lines, very rarely t\ lines long. 



( in'MKs ovate, obtuse or apiculate, 5-nerved, the lowest i to 1 line, the upper Ij line 

 long ; emptv valves oblong, obtuse or truncate, smooth and shiny or scaberulous, trans- 

 versely rugose, faintly o-nerved, the loire.r 1 J to 1 J line, the upper longer by to j, with 

 a pair 'of obscure beardless ridges at the base ; fertile valve oblong, obtuse tosubacute, 1J 

 to If lines long, glabrous, smooth, obscurely o to 7 -nerved ; lodicules usually glabrous. 

 Stamens <> ; anthers to line long ; stigmas brush-like ; grain 1 line long. 



Vnr. luilulenx!* (Stapf). CULMS usually reversedly pubescent below the nodes ; 

 sheaths and blades pubescent ; branches of the panicle and the pedicels often densely 

 and minutely pubescent, Spikelets '2 to '2% lines long; empty valves scabrid and 

 p iWulous ;' fertile valve obscurely bearded atjthe base. Stamens 3 (always ?). 



Habitat: NATAL. Clairmont, "><> feet alt., IHW 7200; Drakensberg, near 

 Newcastle, JinrlnimiH 177; Tmsinga and base of Biggarsberg, BttckaiUW 94: Kiet 

 \ lei, l>ttr]i<tn "2X7. . . 



In a slightly different form also in tropical East Africa as far as Abyssinia, and 

 (probablv introduced) in tropical Arabia, the Mascarene Islands, and India. 



In our specimens the glumes are 7-!>-nerved, as shown in plate, not o-nerved as 

 stated, and there are always 4 stamens. 



Fiji 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume; 3, 1st valve ; 4, 2nd valve in profile ; 5, fertile 

 valve ; 6, pale : 7, pistil, stamens and lodicules. AH enlaryi'd. 



