PLATE 121. 



Andropogon contortus (Linn. Spec. Plant. 1045). 



Perennial. — Culms erect, stent, simple or branched from the upper nodes, 

 often sheathed all along, 1-3 feet long. Sheaths compressed, keeled, glabrous ; 

 ligules short, truncate, ciliolate. Blades linear, acute or tapering to a long fine 

 point, 3-8 inches long, by l|^-3 lines wide, flat or channelled, rigid, scabrid, esjjecially 

 above, sparingly hairy at the base or all over. 



Racemes 1^-3 inches long, straight or curved, rhachis tough between the 

 lowest 2-6 pairs, the spikelets of which are male and like the pedicelled ofi:he 

 upper pairs, joints very short, unequally bearded. Sessile spikelets of the hetero- 

 morphous pairs, female, 3-3|- lines long, callus 1|- line long, rufous bearded. 

 Glumes, lower linear-oblong, truncate, shortly hairy, obscurely nerved ; upper 

 membranous, 3-nerved. Awn stout, 3^-7 inches long, rufous hairy below. Male 

 spikelets obliquely lanceolate, 4-5 lines long, dull green. Glumes, lower herbaceous, 

 sub-obtuse, glabrous or hirsute with tubercle based hairs, many nerved, keels 

 unequally winged ; vpper 3-nerved. Valves, loiver minute ; upper suppressed. 

 Anthers 1^ line long. 



Habitat : Natal. Umsinga and base of Biggarsberg, Buchanan 91 ; near 

 Maritzburg, December, St. George 3 (Wood 7244). 



Figured from St. George's specimen. 



In the Flora Capensis,, Vol. vii., p. 351, a plant collected by Buchanan in 

 O. F. State, and numbered 233, is said to be this plant, but Buchanan's 233 in the 

 Government Herbarium, is a Brachypodium. In the specimen examined we find 

 in the pedicelled spikelets of the heteromorphous pairs, and in both spikelets of 

 the homogamous pairs, that the upper valve is hyaline and 1 -nerved, and the pale 

 equals the lodicules in size. The glumes of the pedicelled spikelets of both pairs, 

 and of the sessile spikelets of the homogamous pairs, are quite glabrous. 



Fig. 1, riant about natural size. Sessile spiltclet — 2, lower glume, back view ; 2a, same, 

 front view ; 3, upper glume, front view ; 3a, same, side view ; 4, lower valve ; 5, upper valve ; 

 6, ovary and stigmas. Pedicelled spikelet — 7, lower glume, front view ; 8, upper glume, front 

 view; 9, lower valve; 10, upper valve with lodicules, pale and stamens. Except Jig. 1, all 

 £nlarged. 



