PLATE 187. 



TmsTACHYA LEUCOTHRIX, Tri'n. (Fl. Cap., Yol. VII., p. 453). 

 Nat. Order Gramiriea). 



Culms 1 to 2 feet long, glabrous, 2 (rarely 1-) noded. 



Leaves mostly basal ; lowest sheaths very firm, rigid, persistent, fulvously 

 tomentose below, glabrescent above, upper rather tight, sparsely hairy or glabrous ; 

 nodes villous ; blades linear, tapering to a fine point or acute, 6 to 9 inches, by 1^ 

 to 2 lines, uppermost much shorter, rigid, glabrous and smooth, or sparsely hairy, 

 rarely hispidly villous ; triplets of spikelets 1 to 1 j inch long, 5-3 in racemes, 

 rarely 2 or solitary. Peduncles J to 1^ inch long, flexuous, glabrous and smooth 

 or hispid above ; pedicels very short, stout or hardly any. 



Gltjues, lower lanceolate, acute or subulate-acuminate, 9 to 12 lines long, 

 firm, 3-nerved, with long white soft spreading hairs from closely crowded small 

 tubercles along the nerves ; Mjsper lanceolate, long subulate- acuminate, 14 to 18 

 lines long, scarious, 3-nerved, minutely tubercled and spreadingly hairy along the 

 margin. Florets, lower male ; valve similar to the upper glume, but slightly 

 longer, 7-nerved, side nerves close to the margins with a double row of bristle 

 bearing glands on each side ; pale linear-oblong, 7 to 8 lines long ; keels narrowly 

 winged below, minutely ciliolate above. Anthers 3|- lines long. Perfect floret ; 

 valve lanceolate, A^ lines long, bifid to J its length, glabrous, 7-nerved, lobes 

 lanceolate, acuminate; callus pungent, 1^ line long, villous ; awn yellowish, 2 to 3 

 inches long, obscurely geniculate ; pale linear-oblong, 5 to 6 lines long, keels almost 

 smooth. Ovary obovoid, villous except at the base ; styles pubescent ; grain 

 linear-oblong, 3 to 3|- lines long. 



EaibitSit : Natal. On the summit of Table Mountain near Pietermaritzburg, 

 Krauss 366 ; Inanda, Wood 1594 ; Umpumulo and Riet Vlei, Buchanan 237, and 

 without precise locality, Buchanan 59 ; Zululand, Jenkinson 30 ; Dundee, W. E. 

 Green 110, partly. 



Also in Cape Colony, Transvaal and tropical Africa. 



In the report of the Cape Botanist for 1864, this grass is alluded to, and is said 

 to be known as " Roode Zaad Gras," and Mr. Ella, of Queenstown district, says of it : 

 " Said to be a good sound pasture, standing and eatable when all others have been 

 blown into dust, it does not stand frost, nor does it shoot early in spring, nor does 

 it grow readily without moisture, but from its permanency when once matured it 

 may be said to be the most important of the district." 



Fig. 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, lower valve ; 4, pale ; 5, stamens and lodicules ; 

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



