PLATE 125. 



Andropogon hirtus (Linn. Sp. Plant. 1046). 



Perennial, tufted ; innovation shoots mostly intravaginal. 



Culms erect, rather slender, 1-3 feet long, glabrous, simple or more or less 

 branched and 3-6-noded below the panicle, longest interncde generally less than 

 ^ foot long. Sheaths tight, glabrous, the lowest crowded, compressed, firm, per- 

 sistent, the upper terete, shorter than the internodes ; ligules oblong, obtuse, up 

 to 1^ line long. Blades narrow, linear, tapering to a long fine point, 4 inches to 

 more than 1 foot long, by f-l^- line wide, glabrous, finely scaberulous, more or less 

 glaucous, turning reddish, midrib white. 



Panicle spathaceous, lax, contracted, sometimes reduced to a few simple 

 branches; G inches to more than 1 foot long. Bacemes f-l|- inch long, silvery 

 villous, on ve^y slender, usually nodding, pubescent or villous, rarely glabrous 

 peduncles, whitoh are 1-3 lines long, and more or less exserted from the long, very 

 narrow, finely acuminate, glabrous or scantily hairy, reddish spathes ; joints 

 filiform, obliquely truncate, up to 2 lines long, densely ciliate. Pedicels very 

 similar, often produced (in the South African species) into a linear or subulate 

 appendage facing the upper glume. Spikelets of the lowest j^air of the sessile 

 raceme alike, male, the sessile of all the other pairs perfect, the pedicelled male. 

 Perfect .spikelets linear-oblong, 2-3 lines long, pale or purplish. Glumes, luwer 

 chartaceous, minutely truncate, dorsally flattened, villous, keels obscure except 

 close to the membranous reddish tips, intracarinal nerves about 5, evanescent 

 below ; upper lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, mucronate, 3-nerved, margins ciliate, 

 keel hirsute above. Valves, lower hyaline, linear-oblong, obtuse, faintly 2-nerved, 

 softly ciliate ; upper very narrow, linear, bifid, about Ij line long, ciliate, base, 

 margins and lobes hyaline. Awn stout, pubescent, 1-1|- inch long, kneed below 

 the middle. Pale very minute or 0. Anthers f-1 line long. Pedicelled spikelets 

 lanceolate, 2;^-3 lines long. Glumes, lower herbaceous, 7-ll-nerved, mucronate or 

 shortly awned ; upper lanceolate-oblong, acute, .1-nerved, softly ciliate. Valves, 

 lower as in the perfect spikelets, but 1-8-nerved ; upper linear, ciliate, nerveless, 

 usually much shorter than the lower or obsolete. 



Habitat : Natal. Gerrard 670, 674 ; var. podotrichus, Umpumulo, 

 Buchanan; Riet Ylei, Buchanan ; BiggeiTsherg, Pehmann 7120, 7121 ; Farkkop, 

 Rehmann 7668 ; without precise locality, Buchanan 62, 121 ; near Durban, 

 Wood, 6050 



Drawn from Wood's specimen. 



Found all over Africa, also in Canary Islands and Madeira, 



Peduncles having long tubercle-based hairs occur occasionally in the typical 

 form in the Cape. 



Fig. 1, Plant natural size ; 2, spathe with 2-nate racemes. Sessile spihelct — 3, lower 

 ghiine, back view ; 4, upper glume, side view ; 5, lower valve, front view ; 6,' upper valve ; 

 7, ovary, stamens, and lodicules. Pedicelled spilielet — 8, lower glume, front view ; 9, upper 

 glume, front view ; 10, lower valve, front view ; 11, upper valve. Except Jfg. 1, all enlarged. 



