POLYPOGON, DeSF. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, in dense spike-like, often lobed, panicles, disarticulating 

 from the pedicels ; rhachilla disarticulating below the valve, not produced, flower 

 hermaphrodite. Glumes 2, subequal, awned from the entire or 2-lobed tips. Valve 

 shorter than the glumes, very thin to hyaline, glabrous, truncate, faintly or 

 obscurely 5-nerved, the lateral nerves shortly excurrent or evanescent within the 

 hyaline tips ; awn very fine, usually deciduous, subterminal, sometimes reduced to 

 a mucro or 0. Pale 2-keeled, slightly shorter than the valve, rarely much shorter. 

 Lodicules 2, delicate. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, very short ; 

 stigmas laterally exserted, loosely plumose. Grain oblong, subterete or slightly 

 grooved, enclosed by the unaltered valve and pale ; hilum short ; embryo small. 



Annual or subperennial ; blades flat, iippermost sheath often tumid. 

 Spikelets 1 to 2 Imes long, often hidden by the numerous awns. 



Species about 8 ; 4 in America, 1 in Africa, the others widely dispersed over 

 the warm regions of both hemispheres. 



PLATE 194. 



PoLYPOGON MONSPEUENSIS, Desf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 543). 



Nat. Order Gramineae. 



Annual, tufted. — Culms erect or geniculately ascending, J to 2 feet long, 

 simple, glabrous, smooth, 3-4-noded, nodes exserted or enclosed ; sheaths loose,, 

 often tumid, glabrous, smooth ; ligules scarious, oblong, denticulate, ciliolate,. 

 1^-3 lines long ; blades linear, tapering to a callous point, 2-6 inches by 1-3 lines,, 

 flaccid to subrigid, flat, scabrid. 



Panicle spikelike, cylindrlc, sometimes lobed or interrupted below, 1-5 inches 

 long, light green or straw-coloured; branches with numerous branchlets from the 

 base, scaberulous ; lateral pedicels extremely short,- disarticulatuig near the base. 



Spikelets 1 line long. 



Glumes subequal, linear or oblanceolate-oblong, shortly 2-lobed or emarginate, 

 scaberulous, ciliate or ciliolate ; awn 2-3 lines long. Valve ^ line long, minutely 

 2-4-macronulate, nerves very obscure; awn as long as the valve or shorter or 0. 

 Pale 2-toothed or 2-mucronulate, almost as long as the valve. Anthers ^-^l^-line 

 long. Grain oblong, ^ line long, subterete or terete, obscurely grooved. 



EaUtat : Natal. Coo2)e7 3520. 



Drawn from Cooper's 3520, the only specimen in the Colonial Herbarium. 



Fig 1, Glume; 2, valve ; 3, pale. All enlarged. 



