Trichol^na, Schrad. 



Spikelets oblong, laterally compressed, more or less gaping, panicled. deciduous 

 from capillary pedicels. Florets, lower usually male , or barren, upper perfect. 

 Glumes very dissimilar or at least unequal, lower reduced to a minute scale or 

 obsolete, very rarely half the length of the spikelet, somewhat remote from the 

 upper ; upper one membranous, emarginate, rnuticous or finely mucronate or 

 aristate from the sinus, 5-nerved, usually hairy. Valves very dissimilar, lower like 

 the upper glume with a hyaline 2-nerved subequal pale, upper much smaller, thinly 

 ohartaceous, glabrous, shining, obtuse or sub-emarginate, obscurely 5-nerved, with 

 an equal 2-nerved pale of similar substance. Lodicules 2, very small. Stamens 3. 

 Style free, slender ; stigma densely plumose, laterally exserted. Grain oblong- 

 ellipsoid, closely embraced by the valve and pale ; hilum basal, punctiform ; 

 embryo about half the length of the grain. 



PLATE 179. 



Trichol^ena setifolia, Stapf (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 442). 

 Nat. Order Graminese. 



Culms in compact tufts, with numerous intravaginal innovation shoots, erect 

 or geniculate, | to Ij foot long, rather slender, glabrous, 2 to 3-noded, upper inter- 

 nodes more or less exserted 



Leaves mostly crowded at the base ; lower sheaths compressed, keeled, firm, 

 striate, hairy to tomentose, at least towards the base and the margins (hairs spread- 

 ing or adpressed) at length often glabrescent, persistent, upper glabrous except at 

 the villous nodes ; ligule a dense fringe of ver};- short hairs. 



Blades filiform, setaceously convolute, flexuous, 4 to 8 inches (rarely 12 

 inches) long, glabrous or hairy. 



Panicle contracted, linear, often spike-like, usually flexuous or nodding, 2 to 

 4 inches long, silky ; rhachis slender, scabrid or hairy in the upper part and below 

 the nodes ; branches solitary or 2-nate, filiform, flexuous, loosely divided almost 

 from the base, erect, like the subcapillary branchlets and pedicels, usually dark and 

 finely hairy, tips slightly thickened with slightly longer hairs. 



Spikelets oblong, 2 to 2^ lines wide, very densely villous with shining white 

 or purple hairs, bearded at the base. 



Glumes, lower, oblong obtuse, less than |- inch long, hyaline, quite hidden by 

 hairs ; upper equalling the spikelet, subchartaceous, oblong, minutely emarginate 

 with a mucro or short awn from the sinus, 5-nerved, densely villous with the hairs 

 increasing in length from the base to beyond the middle, then glabrous towards the 

 apex except along the ciliate margins, hairs usually adpressed and exceeding the 

 spikelet by 1 to 1|- lines. Florets, lower male or barren ; valve equal and very 

 similar to the upper glume ; pale hairy ; perfect floret oblong to linear-oblong, 1 to 

 l^- line long, glabrous, shining ; valve obtuse, subemarginate, faintly 5-nerved, 

 m'embranous ; anthers f line long. 



Eabitat : Natal. At the foot of Table Mountain, KrmLss 382 ; by the 

 Umhloti River at Oakford, Rehmann, 8456 ; Biggarsberg Range, Rehmann 7036 ; 

 Inanda, Wood 1595; Pietermaritzburg, 2000-3000 feet alt., Sutherland; Um- 

 pumulo, Buchanan 298, in part ; and without precise locality, Buchanan 86 ; 

 Durban Flat, 20 feet alt., Wood 8953 ; Dundee, 4000-5000 feet alt., December, 

 Green 69. 



Fig ] , Lower glume ; 2, lower valve ; 3, pale ; 4, upper valve ; 5, pale ; 6, pistil, 

 stamens and lodicules. All enlarqcd. 



