Agrostis, Linn. 



Spikelets from less than 1 line to 2^ lines long, panicled ; rhachilla not 

 continued beyond the floret or produced into a minute point or short delicate 

 bristle, glabrous or shortly hairy. Floret I, hermaphrodite, shorter than the 

 glumes. Glumes equal or subequal, usually lanceolate and acute, rarely oblong 

 and obtuse, awnless (except in A. polypogonoides), membranous, usually 1 -nerved, 

 kesled. Valve broadly oblong, delicately membranous, glabrous or hairy, usually 

 truncate, 5- (rarely 3-) nerved awned from the back or awnless ; side-nerves 

 evanescent below, often excurrent into fine mucros or bristles ; callus very small, 

 glabrous or minutely hairy or rarely bearded. Pale delicate, hyaline, usually 

 shorter than the valve or very short or obsolete, 2-nerved or nerveless. Lodicules 

 2, lanceolate, delicately hyaline. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, 

 very short ; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. Grain free, enclosed in the 

 scarcely altered floret, oblong, more or less dorsally compressed, grooved in front, 

 rarely subterete ; embryo short ; hilum punctiform, basal. 



Annuals or Perennials, of varying habit ; blades usually flat, often flaccid ; 

 ligules membranous ; panicle usually much divided, often delicate, more or less 

 effuse or contracted, rarely spike-like ; branches and branchlets fine to very fine ; 

 spikelets usually very numerous, much gaping, at least temporarily. 



Species numerous all over the world, but mostly in the temperate regions. 



PLATE 195. 



Agrostis natalensis, Stapf (Fl. Cap., Vol VII., p. 548). 



Nat. Order Gramineso. 

 Perennial, tufted, 2 to 3 feet high, glabrous. 



Culms erect, 5 to 6-noded, smooth ; leaf-sheaths rather tight, smooth ; ligule 

 ^ to f line long ; blades narrowly linear, tapering to a fine point, 3 to 7 inches, by 

 J to 1 line, flat, flaccid, minutely asperulous or almost smooth. 



Panicle erect, spike-like, lobed, 4 to 7 inches long, branches in distant, very 

 dense oblong fascicles, very unequal, up to 1^ line long, branched from the base, or 

 the longest some way above it, scaberulous, pedicels very short. 



Spikelets light green, 2|- lines long, narrow ; rhachilla not produced. 



Glumes subequal, linear-oblong, mucronate, scaberulous, keels scabrid. Valve 

 oblong, truncate, 4-mucronate, 1 line long, smooth, 5-nerved at the base, 4-nerved 

 above ; callus minutely hairy in front ; awn straight, tapering towards both ends, 

 scabrid, from above the base, 1 line long. Pale subquadrate, hyaline, denticulate, 

 j-j line long. Anthers J line long, apiculate. Grain oblong, dorsally compressed, 

 grooved, f line long. 



Sabitat : Natal. Umpumulo, 2000 feet alt., Buchanan 159. 



Allied to A. Elliotii, Hack, from Madagascar, but differing in having somewhat 

 larger spikelets, shorter and broader valve, and truncate pale. 



Drawn from Buchanan's l.'iO, the only specimen in the Herbarium. 

 Fig 1 , Glume ; 2, valve. Both enlarr/ed. 



