MKLICA, Linn. 



SI-IKKLKTS in spike or raceme-like or opan panicles, laterally or dorsallv com- 

 pressed, or snbterete, jointed (sometimes imperfectly) on their pedicels or continuous 

 with them ; rhachilla tardily disarticulating above 'the glumes, readilv between the 

 fertile valves, lower 1 or '2 (rarely 3) florets hermaphrodite, the following 2-3 barren, 

 small, embracing each other and forming a clavate or obloiif body. 



GLUMES 2, membranous, hydine or scarious obtuse or acute, 3 to o-nerved, or 

 the upper 7-nerved. Fertile valves firmly membranous except at the hyaline margins 

 and tips, awnless, 7 to 9-nerved, nerves evanescent below the tips ; 'callus minute, 

 obtuse. Pales shorter than the valves, 2-keeled. Lodicules 2, small, truncate, quite 

 connate. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous; styles distinct, short: stigmas laterally 

 exscrtcd. finely plumose. Grain enclosed by the more or less hardened (chartaceous) 

 valve and the pale, free, oblong, semiterete to subterete : hilum a fine line as long as 

 the <rrain : embryo small. 







PERENNIAL ; blades flat or convolute : ligules hyaline. Panicles open, spike- 

 like or almost reduced to a raceme, many to few-spiculate, often' secund. Spikelets 

 more or less scarious, often vividly coloured, nodding on capillary pedicels, the tips of 

 which are usually strongly incurved. 



About 40 species, mainly in the northern temperate zone, a few in the temperate 

 regions of the southern hemisphere. 



PLATE 450. 



MKUCA RACK.MOSA, Tlumb. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII.. p. (i,S5.) 

 Xat. Order Graminese. 



( 'ri. MS ascending from a usually long very slender wiry sometimes procumbent 

 base, simple or branched below, "1 to 3 feet long, glabrous, smooth or scabrid below 

 the panicle, manv-noded, internodes (except the uppermost) mostly enclosed. 



LKAVKS glabrous, scabrid, rather crowded above the base, the lowest more or less 

 reduced ; sheaths tight, striate : ligules up to 1 line long ; blades linear, tapering to a 

 tine point. 3 to (J inches long, to \\ line wide when expanded, usually convolute, 

 subglaucoiis. 



PAXICTK very narrow, 3 to 9 inches long, erect or nodding, more or less secund : 

 branches mostly solitary, distant, erect or suberect, branched or more often simple. 

 filiform capillary, flexuous, often much shorter than the internodes ; pedicels to 1J 

 line long, tips thickened, pubescent. 



SPIKELETS pallid, rarely slightly purplish, 3 to 5 lines long, fertile flowers >. 



(ii.iMKs unequal or subequal, 5-nerved, the /nicer hyaline, ovate acute, 3 to 3J 

 lines long, the upper oblong, firmer, acuminate, nerves rather close and prominent. 

 slightly scabrid, 3J to 4 lines long. Valves slightly exceeding or equalling the 

 glumes, the fertile oblong, obtuse or minutely truncate or emarginate, 7 to 9-nerved, 

 nerves rather prominent, scabrid, sides only hairy ; hairs 2 lines long : body of barren 

 valves clavate. glabrous, scaberulous. Anthers 1 line long. Grain 1 to 1} line 



n 



lonu\ semiterete. 



Habitat : XATAL. Berea. near Durban, by the roadside, ll'oo,/ 392(5 : 

 Merebank, near Durban, IIW 72o8 ; Vernon, Jlm-hatmnloo : Wceneii County. 4000 

 feet silt.. \V,><I 3590. 



Very like the Mediterranean M. ci/mfa. but differing in the rough leaves, the less 

 acuminate upper glume and the more obtuse valves. 



Fig 1, Spikelet ; 2, lower glume ; :^, upper glume ; 4, valve ; 5, pale ; 6, pistil, stamens 

 and lodicules. All enlarged. 



