PLATE 104. 



IscHiEMUM FASCICULATUM (Bi'ongn. Voy. Coq. Bot. 73). var. arcuatum (Hack. 

 Androp. in DC. Monogr. Phan. vi. 235). 



Perennial. — Culms ascending or suberect from a slender creeping ihizome, 

 more or less branched and fascicled near the base, or simple ; 1-3 feet lon^, rather 

 slender, glabrous, 5-maiiy noded. Sheaths equalling or exceeding the internodes, 

 subterete, glabrous, rarely hairy ; ligules minute, truncate, ciliate. Blades linear- 

 lanceolate, setaceously acuminate ; 3-8 inches long by 3-6 lines 1)road, flat, (piite 

 glabrous, or hairy on the back near base, smooth, midrib white. 



Racemes (false spikes), fascicled, 2-5, stout, straight or flexuous, 2-5 inches 

 long, hairy; joints stout, triquetrous, I4--IJ line long, slightly curved, keel (outer 

 angle) ciliate with yellowish hairs. 



Spikelets 2-nate, 1 subsessile the other jiedicelled. Snh.sessi/e sjtil-cJcts 2i-3 

 lines kmg, reddish above, pedicel i line long or sliorter, bearded at the base. Glumes, 

 loicp)- lanceolate-oblong, acutely and shortly 2-toothed, coriaceous below, flat and 

 more fir less distinctly 5-ribbed on the back, scal)erulons, scautilv hairy, keels 

 winged near the tips, scabrid, intracarinal nerves 5-9 ; ii/>/>rr slightly longer than 

 the lower, lanceolate, acuminate, mucronate, ;3-5-nerved, keeled above. Valves, 

 loiver lanceolate, almost as long as the subtending glume, rigidly membranous, 

 glabrous, 3-nerved, with an almost equal pale and a male flower ; upper oblong, 

 hyahne, deeply 2-fid, 2 lines long, delicately membranous, 3-nerved, lobes very 

 broad, ciliate ; awn 4-5 lines long, twisted below. Pale as long as, or slightly 

 longer than, the valve, acute. Anthers 1 line long. Pediccllcd spil-rlefs 2i"lines 

 long, reddish, pedicel 2 lines long, more or less hairy on the back. Lower ylume 

 lanceolate, boat-shaped, keeled, 7-9-nerved, loosely hairy ; the rest as in the sub- 

 sessile spikelets. 



Ea,Mta,t : Natal. Coast districts generally, often in woods and marshy places. 

 Near Durban, Buchanan 32; 100; Wood 5945; near Umzimkulu, " Z>rn/r ; 

 Umpumulo, Buchanan 209 ; without precise locality, (j'crrard G79 ; Ilarvey 49 ; 

 Zululand, JenJcinson 87. 



Figured from specimens gathered near Durban, February, 1899. 



In Harvey's genera of South African plants, this is quoted as Sj)odiojm/on 

 a7vuatus, Nees. Good for pasture, according to Mr. Celliers, per Mr. W. E. Green. 



Fig. 1, Plant about natural size ; 2, rhacliis with t;essile and subsessile spikelets. Srssi/r 

 spihelet .—3, Lower glume ; 3a, same, back view ; 4, upper glume, side view ; 5, lower valve : 

 6, pale of same ; 7, perfect stamens and lodicules ; 8, upper valve ; 9, pale of same ; 

 10, ovary, style and stigman. E.rcrptjiij. 1, all enlarc/ed. 



