PLATE 484, 



AKISTIDA CONGESTA. Hoein & Schult. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 558). 



Nat. Order Grammeae. 



PKBENXIAL. tufted, light green or glaucous, glabrous. 



CULMS slender, rather wiry, erect or geniculately ascending, compressed below. 

 ^ to 2 feet long, simple or branched from some of the lower nodes, 3 to 4-noded : 

 sheaths tight, smooth ; blades usually very narrow, linear, acute, 1 to 6 inches by 1 

 line, rarely larger, usually folded or convolute, rigid, curved, rarelv flat, smooth 

 below, scabrid to hispidulous above. 



PANICLE spike-like, often interrupted, with 1 to '2 shortly peduncled, more or 

 less spreading lateral, pseudo-spikes, 2 to (> inches long : pedicels very short. 



SPIKELETS densely crowded, 3 to 4 lines, rarelv up to 5 lines long. 



GLUMES keeled, keels smooth or almost so, the lower lanceolate, gradually passing 

 into a long rnucro, 3 lines long, the upper linear, emarginate, long mucronatc. 3.', to 

 5 lines long. Valve linear, produced into a short twisted beak, usually slightly 

 shorter than the upper glume, minutely scaberulous above ; callus | line long ; awns 

 jointed with the valves, but not disarticulating, diverging, fine, 5 to 7 lines long : 

 pale not quite line long, nerveless or almost so : lodicules to line long. ."> to 

 6-nerved. Anthers f line long ; grain up to If line long, deeply grooved. 



Habitat : NATAL. Buchanan 1 24. 

 Also in Cape Colony and Basutoland. 



Drawn from Buchanan's 124, kindly lent for the purpose by the Director of the 

 Royal Gardens and Herbarium at Kew. 



Fig 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glumr ; 3, valve, front view ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens 

 and lodicules. All enlarged. 



