PLATE 467. 



AXDHOPOGON SCHIMPEBI, Hochst. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 357). 

 Nat. Order Grramineee. 



PERENNIAL (always ?) CULMS erect, sometimes geniculate, stout, up to 5 feet 

 long, gkbrous, up to 7-noded ; sheaths quite glabrous or the uppermost more or less 

 hairy, those of the innovation shoots compressed, the others terete or slightly keeled 

 in the upper part, the lowest whitish, almost scarious ; ligules obtuse, scabious, up to 

 2 lines long : blades linear, tapering to a long fine point, to 1 foot by 3 to 7 lines, 

 subrigid to almost flaccid, flat, glabrous, rarely scantily hirsute near, the base, scabrid, 

 at least upwards, margins scabrid to subspimilous. 



PANICLE large, oblong to ovate, lax, decompound up to l foot long. Spathes 

 lanceolate, acuminate, narrow or broad, 1 to 1J inch long, scarious, reddish ; common 

 peduncles filiform, glabrous except the curved tips, which are beset with long, 

 yellowish tubercle-based hairs and enclosed in the spathe or shortly and usually 

 laterally exserted. Racemes to 1 inch long, dense, scarcely spreading, very shortly 

 and unequally peduncled ; joints 5 to many, filiform, obliquely truncate, up to 1 line 

 long, shortly whitish ciliate, pedicels very similar; spikelets of the lost pair of the 

 sessile raceme alike, male, the sessile of all the other pairs perfect, the pedicclled male. 



Perfect spikelets linear-oblong, 2 to 2j lines long ; pale. 



GLUMES, latrer subchartaceous to almost membranous, minutely truncate, dor sally 

 flattened, glabrous or more or less villous, intracarinal nerves 5, some at least 

 evanescent beloAV, keels spinulous ciliate above, callous bearded ; upper membranous, 

 obtuse, 3-nerved, nerves scabrid near the tip. Valves, lower oblong, obtuse, faintly 

 2 -3-nerved, ciliate, upper shortly 2-fid, 1 -nerved, lobes oblong, obtuse, subglabrous, 

 awn about 10 to 15 lines (rarely 2 to 2J inches) long, pubescent and kneed beloAV the 

 middle ; pale 0. Anthers 1 line long. 



Pedicelled npikelets lanceolate, usually pale, 2 J to 4 lines long, glabrous or hairy. 



GLUMES, lower subherbaceous, acutely acuminate, 9 to 11 -nerved, often with a 

 terminal bristle (up to 2| lines long), keels spinulous ciliate ; upper cuspidate, 

 3-nerved, ciliate. Valves, loirer linear-oblong, obtuse, equalling the glumes, 

 1-3 -nerved ; upper narrow, linear-cuneate, 1 to 3 lines long, 1 -nerved. Anthers ij 

 to 2 lines long. 



Habitat : NATAL. Without precise locality, Gerrard 691. 



" A rather variable plant, extending throughout East Africa to Abyssinia. 

 Gerrard's specimen represents a robust state, with hairy spikelets, like those of 

 Schimper's No. 897 (coll. 1853) and 1052 (coll. 1863-8), and with long-aristulate 

 male spikelets, as in Schimper's No. 1052 (coll. 1838)." 



Drawn from Gerrard's specimen, which was kindly loaned for the purpose by the 

 Director of Kew Gardens and Royal Herbarium. 



Sessile tpikeletFig 1, Lower glume; 2, upper glume ; 3, lower valve ; 4, upper valve ; 

 5, pistil, stamens and lodicules. Pedicelled spihelct, Fig 6, lower glume ; 7, upper glume ; 8, 

 Jower valve ; 9, upper valve. AH enlarged. 



