PLATE 486. 



SPOHOBOLUS FiMBRiATus. Xees. (Fl. Cap.. Vol. VII.. p. 585). 

 Nat. Onler Gramineu-. 



PKHEXXIAL, densely tufted. CULMS usually geniculate, '2 to 3 feet long, smooth, 

 glabrous, 2 to 4-noded ; sheaths glabrous except the sometimes ciliate or fimbriata 

 margins, smooth, firm, the lowest pallid, more or less compressed and subcarinate ; 

 ligule a ciliate rim ; blades linear, tapering to a long setaceous point, 5 to 10 inches 

 by 1 to 2 lines, flat or folded with the margins rolled in. glabrous, rarely with long 

 fine spreading hairs near the base, smooth or scaberulous. 



PAXICLE erect, subflexuous or nodding, 8 to 1'2 inches by 1 to 2 inches (when 

 open) ; branches solitary, irregularly crowded, 1 to 3 inches long, flat, at length more 

 or less spreading, filiform, repeatedly branched from the base, lower secondary 

 branchlets up to 9 lines long, smooth or almost so ; lateral pedicels very short. 



SPIKELETS greyish-green, to 1 line long, crowded or rather lax. 



GLUMES unequal, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, the lower hyaline, equalling 

 about % the length of the spikelet, the upper as long as the valve or slightlv longer. 

 1 -nerved ; valve ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 1 nerved. Stamens 3 ; anthers 

 line long. Grain obovoid, truncate, quadrangular, very slightlv compressed, f line 

 long : pericarp delicate. 



Habitat : XATAL. Xear Durban, below 500 feet alt.. Drege ; and without precise 

 locality, G errant 602. 



As we had no specimen of this grass in the Herbarium the drawing was made 

 from a specimen kindly lent from the collection of Dr. H. Bolus, Capetown. The 

 specimen was gathered on a stony hillside near Graaff-Reinet in April. 1867. and i> 

 Bolus 555. 



Fig 1, Spikelets; 2, Lower glume; 3, upper glume: 4, valve; 5, pale: 6, stamens : 

 7, lodicules and pistil. All enlarged. 



