PLATE 183. 



Arundinella. EcKLONii, Nees. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII. , p. 448). 

 Nat. Order Graraiiiese. 



Perennial. — Culms erect, 2^ to 4 feet long, glabrous, 4 to 6-noded ; sheaths 

 rather tight, glabrous or ciliate aloug the margins or hirsute ; ligules extremely 

 short, ciliolate, blades linear, tapering to a long fine point, from a few inches to 

 more than 1 foot, by 2 to 4 lines, flat or convolute, rigid, glabrous, margins rough. 



Panicle linear-oblong to oblong, contracted or open, up to 1 foot long ; 

 branches solitary or 2, rarely 3-4-nate, the longest up to 3 inches long, stiff, scabrid. 



Spikelets subsecund, 2 to 2j lines long. 



Glumes, lonrr ovate-oblong, nuicronate, Ijto 2 lines long, 3, rarely 4-5-nerved ; 

 upper ovate-lanceolate, 2 to 5 lines long, 5-nerved. Florets, lower male ; valve 

 linear- oblong, subacute, l| to 2 lines long, sub- 7 -nerved ; pale linear-oblong, Ij line 

 long, keels winged below, scaberulous above ; lodicules present ; anthers | line 

 long. Perfect floret ; valve oblong, obscurely bifid, 1^ line long, thin, minutely 

 scaberulous ; callus minutely 2-bearded ; awn fine, column dark brown, 1|- line 

 long, bristle whitish, 1 line long : pale linear, 1;^ line long, scaberulous between the 

 keels ; lodicules and stamens as in the male floret. 



ESibilSLt : Natal. On the banks of rivulets between Umzimkulu River and 

 Umkoraaas River, Drkje ; Riet Vlei, 4000-5000 feet alt., Buchanan 275 ; Um- 

 pumulo, near water, 2000 feet alt., Buchanan 274 ; and vi^ithout precise locality, 

 Gerrard 684, 685 ; summit of Drakensberg, near Nelson's Kop, March, Wood 600S, 

 alt. 5000-6000 feet; Dundee, March, (jreen 82 ; Zululand, 2000 feet alt , Jenkin- 

 son 96. 



Jenkinson says of this grass : " Good for cattle, grows in scattered tufts." 



Fig. 1, Lower glume ; 2, iip])er glume ; 3, lower valve ; 4, stamens and lodicules ; 5, pale ; 

 6 upper valve ; 7, pale ; 8, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 



Stenotaphrum, Trin. 



Spikelets lanceolate to ovate-oblong, sessile, singly or 2-4 on the very short 

 branches of an apparently simple secund spike, more or less sunk in hollows on or 

 adpressed to the anterior face of a dorsally flattened herbaceous, continuous or 

 jointed rhachis. Florets, loiver male, or reduced to an empty valve ; upper perfect. 

 Glumes usually very dissimilar, loiver minute, hyaline, upper almost equalling the 

 spikelet, 5-7-nerved, rarely both more or less similar and minute, or the lower nerved 

 like the upper, although smaller. Valves equal, lower (outer) firm, chartaceous, 

 3-9-nerved, upper thinner 5-nerved. Pales almost equalling the valves, 2-keeled. 

 Lodicules 2, obliquely quadrate, nerved. Stamens 3. Styles free or almost so, 

 very slender ; stigmas long, plumose, laterally exserted. Grain broadly elliptic- 

 oblong, slightly compressed from the back, tightly enclosed ; hiluna punctiform, 

 basal ; embryo about half the length of the grain. 



Creeping or prostrate branched perennials with ascending culms ; sheaths 

 strongly compressed, lower more or less flabellate ; blades mostly obtuse ; spikes 

 terminal and often also lateral from the upper leaves, tough or at length breaking 

 up at the joints. 



Species 5, mainly on the shores of the tropical and subtropical seas. 



