PLA.TE 114. 



Andropogon appendiculatus (Nees. Fl. Afr. Austr. 105). 



Perennial, densely tufted. — Culms erect, 2-3 feet long, glabrous, compressed 

 or terete, 5-6-noded, simple below, remotely branched from the upper 2-3 nodes, 

 branches solitary, long, straight, glabrous. 



Leaves mostly crowded near the base. Sheaths glabrous or bearded at the 

 mouth, lower very firm, strongly compressed, keeled and persistent, upper shorter 

 than the internodes, tight, uppermost sub-spathaceous. Ligules membi'anous, very 

 short, truncate, ciliolate. Blades linear, acute, usually folded, lower 4-12 inches 

 by 1-2^ lines (unfolded), uppermost very short or obsolete, rigid, glabrous, or hairy 

 at the base, acutely keeled, margins scabrous. 



Peduncles generally long exserted, glabrous. Racemes 2-8, fascicled, unequal, 

 li-4 inches long, flexuous, slender, loose ; joints 2-3 lines long, thicker upwards, 

 hairy on the convex back, or only along the margins, hairs wliite, particularly 

 above, tips sub-cupular with irregularly toothed margins. Pedicels similar, more 

 slender, produced into a subulate appendage facing the upper glume. Sessile 

 S2nkelets lanceolate, 3-3^ lines long, often purplish. Glumes sub-coriaceous to 

 chartaceous, glabrous ; loiver acute or acuminate, dorsally concave, keels acute, 

 scabrid, or I'igidly ciliate, callus scantily bearded; I'^i^Jr^r boat shaped, 1-nerved. 

 Valves, lower oblong-lanceolate, faintly 2-nerved, softly ciliate ; tipper 2 lines long, 

 bifid to middle, 1-nerved, lobes very narrow, ciliate. Awn 5-7 lines long, kneed 

 below the middle. Pale ^ line long, ciliate. Anthers 1 line long. Pedicelled 

 spihelets, male, narrowly lanceolate, 3-3^ lines long, purplish, glabrous. Glumes, 

 lotver acuminate, with a median keel in the upper part ; npper 1-nerved, resembling 

 the entire lanceolate, muticous, reversedly ciliate valves. 



EaUtat: Natal. Durban Flat, Buchanan 41; Riet Ylei, Bwhanwi 192; 

 Umpumulo, Buchanan 191 ; Mooi River, Mason 29, 45 ; Zululand, Jenldnson 48 ; 

 Dundee, Green 70, 76 ; near Durban, Wood 6049 ; Zululand, Sinoijield. 



Valuable as food — " Blaauw-Gras." (Mr. Celliers, per Mr. W. E. Green.) 



Fig. 1, Plant about natural size. Sessile spi/tdcf — 2, lo-nGi5t glume, back view : 2a, same, 

 front view ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lowest valve ; 5, upper valve ; fi, pale : 7, stamens, stvle. 

 stigmas, ovary, and lodicules. Pedicelled spikdcf— -8, lowest ghime ; 9, u])por glume ; 

 10, rhachis of sjiikelet. Except Jig. 1, all enlarged. 



