PLATE 109. 



POLLINIA VILLOSA (Spreng. Syst. I. 288, non Benth.) 



Perennial. — Culms 1|-3 feet long, rather stout, 3-4-noded, appressedly 

 hirsute or pubescent at least below the nodes, and at the top. Sheaths usually 

 exceeding the internodes except the uppermost, terete, tight, scantily hairy to 

 villous or glabrescent, bearded at the nodes. Ligules membranous, |-1 line long, 

 glabrous. Blades lanceolate-linear, gradually passing into the sheath, shortly 

 acute, 4-7 inches long, 3-6 lines wide, flat, sub-erect, glabrous or more or less 

 appressedly hairy. 



Racemes (false spikes) 2-7, on a short common axis, sub-erect, stout, 2-6 inches 

 long, joints and pedicels linear, stout, with long silvery grey hairs mainly along the 

 margins and i-ound the base, about 1^-2^ lines long. Spikelets crowded, ferrugi- 

 nous, lanceolate, 2|-3|- lines long. Glumes coriaceous, lower minutely truncate, 

 dorsally depressed, margins broadly inflexed, keels long and densely ciliate ; upper 

 lanceolate, boat-shaped, shining, 3-nerved, keel cUiate above. Valves, loiver era^tj , 

 a,lmost as long as the subtending glume, membranous below, hyaline above, 

 2-nerved, margins inflexed, ciliate ; upper ovate-oblong, aboiit Inline long, acutely 

 bifid to the middle, lobes ciliate. Awn 7-10 lines long, kneed above the middle. 

 Pale small, oblong, obtuse, ciliate. Stamens 3. Anthers 1^ line long. Lodicules 2, 

 small, cuneate. 



Esibitwt : Natal. Inanda, Wood 1591; Umpumulo, Buchanan 210; Mooi 

 River, Mason 7 ; Zululand, Swanfield; and without precise locality, Buchanan 51. 

 Also in Madagascar. 



Figured from Swanfield's specimen, and compared with Buchanan's and 

 Mason's. 



This species was formerly known in Natal as Eulalia villosa, Nees, but is now 

 included in the genus Pollinia. 



Fig. I, Plant about natural size ; 2, rhachis with sessile and pedicelled spikelets ; 3, lower 

 glume, front view ; 3a, same, back view; 4, upper glume, front view; 4a, same, side view; 

 5, lowerf valve ; 6, upper valve ; 7, ovary, style, stigmas, stamens, and lodicules ; 8, pale. 

 Except Jiff. 1, all cnlarqed. 



