PLATE 181. 



Trichol^na glabra, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 446). 



Nat. Order Graminese. 



Perennial — Culms densely fascicled, erect or subgeniculate, slender, branched 

 and wiry below, I to 1| foot long, glabrous, smooth, 5 to 7 noded ; upper inter- 

 nodes at length exserted ; sheaths tight, terete, striate, .lower subpersistent, often 

 finely hairy ; ligule a dense fringe of fine hairs ; blades linear, long tapering to a 

 fine point, 2^ to 4 J inches by 1 to 2 J lines, flat or involute, somewhat rigid and 

 glaucous, finely pubescent or glabrous, smooth. 



Panicle oblong or obovoid, open or contracted, lax, 2|- to 6 inches long ; 

 rhachis slender, smooth ; branches filiform, smooth, 2-nate or solitary, the longest 

 2 to 4 inches long, very laxly and repeatedly divided from the base, or the strongest 

 simple, for J to 1 inch ; branchlets and pedicels very delicate, capillary, flexuous, 

 the latter 1 to 2 lines long. 



Spikelets elliptic-oblong, 1 line long, glabrous, pallid or tinged with purple. 



Glumes, lower an extremely minute scale, upper oblong, almost equalling the 

 spikelet, emarginate, membranous, faintly 5 -nerved. Florets, lower male ; valve 

 very similar to the upper glume, but slightly longer and broader ; pale equal to the 

 valve, glabrous. Perfect floret oblong, f line long, valve rigidly membranous, 

 shining, obscurely 5-nerved. Anthers |- to f line long. 



EabitSLt : Natal, Sandy valley near the Tugela Eiver, 1000 feet alt., 

 Buchanan 25S ; Helpmakaar Spruit, Potgieter's Rust, (in Natal), Nelson 23. 



Drawn from Buchanan's 259, which is the only specimen in the Herbarium. 



Fig 1, Lower valve ; 2, pale ; 3, upper valve ; 4, pale. All enlarged. 



Melinis, Beauv. 



Spikelets linear-oblong, small, laterally compressed, panicled, deciduous from 

 the capillary pedicels ; lower floret reduced to an empty valve ; upper perfect. 

 Glumes very dissimilar, lower reduced to a minute scale, ripper membranous, shortly 

 2-lobed, mucronulate from the sinus, prominently 7-nerved, glabrous, rarely hairy. 

 Valves very dissimilar ; lower rather like the upper glume, but more deeply lobed 

 and usually with a fine awn from the sinus, 5-nerved ; ^fp^^er smaller, very thin and 

 rigidly membranous, minutely 2-lobed, shining, obscurely 3-1-nerved with an equal, 

 obscurely 2-nerved pale of similar substance. Lodicules 2, very delicate. Stamens 

 3. Styles free, slender ; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. Grain unknown. 



Perennial or Annual (?) — Culms ascending from a prostrate, very slender, 

 many noded, branched base ; ligules reduced to a fringe of short hairs ; panicle 

 contracted, narrow, much divided, with capillary branchlets and pedicels ; spikelets 

 usually purple, at least at the tip. 



Species 1, in Brazil, tropical and subtropical Africa and Madagascar. Very 

 closely allied to Tricholajna. 



