PLATE 110. 



Ubelytrum squarrosum (Hack. Androp. in DC. Monogr. Phan. vi. 272). 



Compactly tufted. — Culms 2-2|- feet long, glabrous, few-noded. Sheaths 

 exceedmg the internodes except the uppermost, tight, terete, glabrous, smooth, 

 the lower widened, very firm, shining, persistent. Ligules oblong, 2-3 lines long, 

 glabrous or with a few long hairs behind. Blades very narrow, linear, tapering to 

 a setaceous point, lowest up to 1 foot, by f-lj line, flat, convolute, rather rigid, 

 glabrous, prominently nerved and finely scaberulous above. 



Racemes (false spikes) 5-6 inches long, lJ-2 lines thick, almost glabrous to 

 villous. Joint's obliquely truncate, 3-4 lines long, silky at the base, scantily 

 pubescent to villous above, appendage up to 2 lines long, unequally lobed or 

 toothed, ciliolate. 



Spikelets heteromorphous, 2-nate (one sessile the other pedicelled) on the 

 very fragile rhachis of solitary terminal, sub-cylindric spikelike racemes, the 

 sessile deciduous, with contiguous joint of the rhachis and pedicel. Sessile spilcelets, 

 florets 2, lower male, upper perfect, about 4 lines long. Glumes, loire)- oblong to 

 lanceolate, obtuse to acute, glabrous, smooth or punctate or pubescent to villous, 

 keels 2, acute, at least above, distantly (sometimes obscurely) spinulously muricate 

 at the middle, rigidly ciliate above, with 1-3 intracarinal nerves which are more or 

 less prominent towards the tips ; upper lanceolate, acute, firmly membranous, 

 3-nerved, side nerves sub-marginal, keel rigidly ciliate above, margins softly ciliate. 

 Valves hyaline, sub-equal, slightly shorter than the glumes, softly ciliate, about 

 3 lines long ; lower 2-nerved, lanceolate, acute ; vpper 3-sub-5-nerved, ovate, 

 lanceolate, obtuse to sub-acute, mucronulate. Pales almost equalling their valves, 

 hyaline, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3. Anthers l|-2 lines long. 

 Stigmas laterally exserted. Pedicelled spikelets varying in hairyness like the 

 sessile, narrow and usually smaller than them, with 2 male florets or (often in the 

 same raceme) more or less reduced, sometimes to an awn representing the lower 

 glume, and a minute rudiment of the upper. Awn squarrose, flattened below, 

 scabrid, lj-3|- inches long. 



Habitat : Natal. Near Dundee, W. E. Green 2 ; 26. 



Figured from Green's specimen, which is the only one in the Government 

 Herbarium. 



The lower floret of the sessile spikelet consists of the lower valve, rudimentar}- 

 and minute ovary, Avith stamens and lodicules, and the pale of upper valve is 

 thickened and fleshy below, and hyaline above, and the infolded margins are 

 auricled at the base. 



A 



very hard grass. (Mr. Celliers per Mr. W. E. Green). 



Fig. 1, Plant about natural size; 2, joint of rhachis. Sessile spikelet, 3, lower glume, 

 back view ; 3a, same, front view ; 4, upper glume, side view ; 5, lower valve ; 6, ])ale of 

 same ; 7, upper valve ; 8, pale of same ; 9, ovary, remains of filaments and lodicules. Pedi- 

 celled spikelet, 10, lower glume ; 11, upper glume ; 12, lower valve. Except fg. 1, oil enlarged. 



