PLATE 489. 



DIPLACHNE ELEUSINK, Nees. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 591). 

 Nat. Order Grammese. 



PERENNIAL, glabrous. CULMS tufted, I to 2 feet long, geniculately ascending, 

 terete, smooth, simple or branched below, 3-noded, internodes exserted ; sheaths 

 rather tight and firm, smooth, the lower keeled ; ligules membranous, very short, 

 truncate, denticulate, ciliate ; blades linear, tapering to a fine point, 4 to 9 inches, 

 by 1 to 2 lines, more or less flaccid, scabrid on both sides or rather smooth below. 



PANICLE narrow, consisting of 2 to 8 erect, distant spikes or spike- like 

 racemes ; rhachis angular, finely scaberulous or almost smooth ; branches 1 to 4 

 inches long, flexuous. 



SPIKELETS unilateral, imbricate or 2-seriate, subsessile, 2 to 3-lines long, 5 to 

 8 -flowered, light green. 



GLUMES lanceolate in profile, obtuse or subacute, l and l line long respec- 

 tively, whitish, keel green. Valves oblong, very obtuse, entire, up to Tine long, 

 tips broad, hyaline, side-nerves finely silky, evanescent below^the tips. Pales 

 obtuse. Anthers not quite line long ; grain elliptic, flat, | to | line by line. 



Habitat : NATAL. Banks of Tugela River, 700 feet alt. Buchanan 207. 



Drawn from Buchanan's specimen, the only one in the Herbarium. 

 VALVES 1 J line long, not \ line as quoted in the Flora Capensis. 



Fig 1, lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, valve; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens and lodicules; 

 6, spikelet. AH enlarged. 



