FESTITA, Linn. 



SPIKKLKTS laterally compressed (at least after flowering) panic-led, rhachilla dis- 

 articulating above the glumes and between the valves. Florets "1 to many, perfect (the 

 uppermost usually reduced), distinctly exserted from the glumes. (Humes subequal. 

 rarely conspicuously unequal, subherbaceous or subscarious, more or less keeled. 1-3- 

 (rarely the upper o) nerved. Valves lanceolate, muticous, mueronate or awned. lier- 

 baceous, rounded on the back or keeled towards the tip, 5-7 -nerved ; muero or awn 

 from the tip or very close to it, straight ; callus small, glabrous or almost so. Pules 

 2-keeled, more or less 2-toothed. Lodicules 2, unequally 2-lobed or entire, hyaline. 

 Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous or the top minutely hairy; styles distinct, very short, 

 terminal or subterminal ; stigmas plumose, laterallv exserted. (Jrain tightly enclosed 

 by the slightly hardened valve and pale, free or more or less adhering to the pale or to 

 both, oblong, dorsally convex, grooved or concave in front : hilum linear, long : 

 embryo small. Perennial, tufted ; sheaths open or more or less closed ; ligules 

 scarious ; blades flat, folded or convolute, often setaceous. Panicles more <>r less 

 compound, contracted or open, sometimes effuse. 



Numerous species, often very difficult to discriminate, in the temperate regions, 

 particularly of the northern hemisphere, and a few in the high mountains of the tropics. 



PLATE 456. 



FKSTITA COSTATA, Xees. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 721). 

 Xat. Order (iramineac. 



PERENNIAL, densely tnfted ; innovation shoots intravaginal. 



CULMS erect, robust, up to 3 feet long, smooth, about 2-noded, internodes 

 exserted. 



LEAVES glabrous ; basal sheaths crowded, the outer coriaceous, brown, nt length 

 breaking up into fibres, persistent, upper somewhat lax. striate to silicate, green. 

 smooth, uppermost more than foot long, ligules ovate, obtuse, l to 2 lines long : 

 blades convolute in bud, then Hat, or involute when dry, much narrower than the 

 sheath, linear, tapering to a very acute ]K>int, Imrer up to more than 1 foot by l to '.'> 

 lines, firm, smooth on both sides or scabrid above and along the margins, prominently 

 ribbed on the upper side, with a continuous sclerenchymatous layer on the back. 



PANICLE contracted or open, lax, angular, or ancipitous above ; branches 2 or 

 3-nate, lower very remote, filiform, flexuous, erect or spreading, angular, or ancipitous, 

 smooth or scabrid, lowest 4 to 6 inches long, nsuallv undivided to the middle 



or 



beyond, then loosely divided ; branchlets contracted, fine ; pedicels verv unequal, 1 t<> 

 (5 lines long, often very flexuous. 



SPIKEUETS erect or nodding, elliptic, (i to <S lines long, green, tinged with purple 

 or violet, very loosely 3 to 7-flowered ; rhachilla verv slender, joints up to 1 line lung. 



GiA'MES subequal or loirer distinct! v shorter, 2^ to 3 lines long, tipper 3 to 4 

 lines long, both lanceolate, acute, 3-nerved, smooth. Valves lanceolate in profile. 

 acute or minutely mucronate, 4 to "> lines long, rather firm, scaberulous, distinctly 

 o-nerved ; keels of pale scaberulous ; lodicules lanceolate, over -J line long. Anthers 

 2 to 3 lines long ; top of ovary pubescent. 



Habitat: XATAI.. IJiet Vlei, 4000 to ">0<)0 feet alt.. Jlin-lnnuin 234: Benvie. 

 Karkloof, 3000-4000 feet alt,, MVWdOOo ; and without precise localitv. ll-ttchuiutn .">.'!. 

 Also in Xyassaland. 

 Drawn from Buchanan's 234. 



Fig 1, A spikelet ; 2, lower glnnio ; :$, nppor glmno : 4, valve; .~>, j)aU- ; 6, pistil 

 lodicules ; 7, grain, front view : H, same, hack view. All <'>i!<tn/<'il. 



