JJauthonm] xxviii. (iUAMiNE.K. 213 



3 to 3y lines long, uwn 3,} to 4 lines, geniculate below the middle 

 with a flat much-twisted column ; pale as in the lowest flower ; 

 fruit (unripe) narrowly elliptical, glabrous. 



Resembles some forms of the American D. spiccUa Hoem & 

 Schult, but is distinguished by its long stiff suberect leaves, 

 relatively shorter barren glumes, etc. 



PuNGO Andonck). — A very elegant grass, apparently flowering only 

 very rarely. When dried tihe leaves completely lose their form and 

 colour. Plentiful on the rocks of the prtesidium : in fl. Nov. 185(j. 

 No. 2744. On the higher rocks of the prjesidium at Pedra Cazella, 

 Pungo, and Cabondo ; in fl. May 1857. No. 7417. 



42. PENTASCHISTIS Stapf in Fl. Capens. vii. p. 314 (1898); 

 Nees in Lindl. Nat. Syst. ed. ii. p. 382 (1836) as a subgenus. 



Dayithonia DC, Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. p. 1163, pro parte. 



1. P. Welwitschii Kendle sp. nov. 



A widely ca^spitose glabrous perennial with a slender fibrous 

 rhizome ; culms slender, erect, springing from among the withered 

 basal leaf -sheaths, which ultimately become fibrous ; leaves erect, 

 linear, convolute, stiff, subpungent, sometimes overtopping the 

 panicle ; ligule a very short ridge of whitish hairs ; blade con- 

 spicuously jointed to the slender cylindrical striate sheath which 

 far exceeds the very thin terete internodes ; panicle graceful, 

 narrowly lanceolate, subnutant ; branches slender, ascending, 

 solitary ; spikelets terminal, or shortly stalked on the branchlets, 

 small, lanceolate before spreading of the glumes ; flowers 2, ? ; 

 barren glumes shorter than the flowers, membranous, 1 -nerved, 

 lanceolate, the lower acuminate, the upper slightly larger with 

 an irregularly cut cuspidate apex ; flowering glumes subequal, 

 on a very short rhachis-joint, callus short, white-hairy ; glume 

 yellowish, ovate, 3 -nerved with 2 less prominent partial outei 

 nerves, apex bearing a median awn, and on each side a pair of 

 weak slender setiform lobes ; awn weak, geniculate just above 

 the base ; pale elliptical, back somewhat flattened, apex shortly 

 weakly trifid, minutely hispidulous. 



Plants 1 to 2 ft. high ; culms with 3 internodes, the upper- 

 most only escaping from the leaf -sheath ; leaves except the 

 younger 8 to 10 in. long, slender and convolute, rarely exceeding 

 I line in breadth. Panicle 41 to 7 in. long, \ to 1 in. broad, 

 lower branches li to 2 in. ; pedicels about equal or a little longer 

 or shorter than the spikelet, like the rhachis and branches 

 glabrous; spikelet, without the awns, about 1^ line long; lower 

 barren gl. 1 line, the upper 1] line; flowering gl. 1 line, the 

 inner setfe 1^ line long, the outer shorter; awn 2 J lines, kneed 

 }, line above the base ; pale a little shorter than the glume, apex 

 and upper part of nerves minutely hispidulous ; ovary glabrous. 



A very distinct species appi'oaching D. abyssinica liochst., but 

 distinguished by its lax inflorescence, smaller spikelet, sessile 

 upper flower, 5-nerved flowering glume, etc. 



Pungo Axpongo. — Widely ctespitose, 1 to 2 ft. high ; cuhna erect 



