PLATE 108. 



Elionueus argenteus (Nees. F]. Afr. Aus. 95). 



Densely caespitose ; innovation shoots intravaginal. 



Culms slender, simple, rarely with a lateral flowering branch from the upper 

 part ; 1-2 feet long, more or less compressed below, glabrous, 2-3-noded. Leaves 

 mainly crowded at the base ; lower she^aths compressed, villous at the very base, 

 appressedly and usually fugaciously hirsute above, or glabrous except near the 

 mouth ; upper ones terete, tight, shorter than the internodes, the uppermost 

 sometimes tumid with a minute blade. Ligules truncate, ciliolate, with long hairs 

 from behind. Blades very narrow, linear, acute, generally tightly convolute and 

 filiform ; 4-12 inches long by about 1 line wide, erect, rigid, sulcate, flexuous or 

 curved, glabrous or hirsute at the base. 



Raceme (false spike) 3-6 inches long, rather stout, straight or flexuous, 

 whitish-silky, joints rather stout or slender to 2 lines long, long and densely villous 

 on the back. Sessile spikelets lanceolate, acuminate, 4-5 lines long. Glumes, lower 

 herbaceous to chartaceous, bicuspidate, villous to subglabrous on the back, intra- 

 carinal nerves about 6, evanescent below, keels acute, long and densely ciliate in 

 the lower part with tubercle-based tufts of hairs, and with oil glands nearly all 

 along ; callus short, obtuse, hairy ; upper acute, 3-nerved, pubescent along the 

 fine prominent keel, margins softly ciliate. Valves, loiver lanceolate, 2|- lines, 

 long, 2-nerved ; upper oblong-lanceolate, 2 lines long, 3-nerved ; margins of both 

 softly ciliate. Pale very minute. Anthers 2 lines Icmg. Fedicelled spikelets 2^-3 

 lines long, pedicels- up to 2 lines long like the joints. Glumes, loiver entire or 

 sub-entire, one margin inflexed, the other spreading, intracarinal nerves 5-6 ; 'Kpper 

 3-5-nerved, otherwise as in the sessile spikelet except the sex. 



Hdbitat : Natal. Umpumulo and Riet Vlei, BucJi anan 161; without precise 

 locality, Gerrard 768, Buchanan 52; Zululand, Buchanan 161a; Mooi River, 

 Mason 3, 43 ; Dundee, W. E. Green 68 ; Zululand, Jenkinson 94. 



Figured from the specimen sent by- Mr. W. E. Green, compared also with 

 Buchanan's 161 and Mason's 3, all of which agree except in size of plant and length 

 of inflorescence. We find, however, that in all the specimens examined the lower 

 valve of the sessile spikelet and the upper glume of the pedicelled one are truncate, 

 not acute, and crested as shown in the drawing. 



Found also in Abyssinia. Some species of the genus yield an aromatic oil, 

 and a variety of the present species, E. argenteus, var. thymiodora, found in the 

 Cape Colony, probably has this peculiarity. 



Fig: 1, Plant about natural size ; 2, sessile spikelet, lower glmne ; 3, upper glume ; 

 3a, same, back view ; 4, lower valve ; 5, upper valve ; 6, ovary, style, stigmas and lodicule ; 

 7, pedicelled spikelet, lower glume ; 8, upper glume ; 9, rhachis with sessile and pedit-elled 

 spikelets. Except Jiy. 1, all enlarged. 



