PLATE No. 401. 



Aristida barbicollis, Trin. and Eupr. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 559), 



Nat. Order Graminese. 



Perennial, tufted, light green to glaucous, glalji'ous except at the mouths of 

 the sheaths. 



Culms slender, rather wiry, more or less compressed below, geniculately 

 ascending or suberect, |^ to Ij foot long, simple or scantily branched from some of 

 the lower nodes, smooth, 2-3-noded ; sheaths tight, smooth ; ligule a dense line of 

 short hairs passing into beards or a ring of long haii's at the mouths of the 

 sheaths ; blades usually very narrow, linear, acute, l-o inches by f to 1 line, folded ; 

 convolute, curved, rigid or flat and then often twisted or curled, smooth below, 

 scabrid above. 



Panicle ovate to oblong, 2-6 inches long ; rhachis straight or flexuous, smooth ; 

 branches solitary, distant, filiform, spreading, flexuous or straight, scaberulous, 

 dense, spike-like from J to Ij inch above the base ; pedicels very short. 



Spikelets 3^ lines long. 



Glumes keeled, the fo^iier lanceolate, shortly mucronate,2 lines long, keels smooth 

 or scabrid, the upj^ei" linear, emarginate, mucronate, 3 J lines long. Valve linear, 

 produced into a short, stout, tightly twisted beak, somewhat shorter than the upper 

 glume, minutely scaberulous below the beak ; callus less than |- line long ; awns 

 joii\ted with the valve, not disarticulating, fine, 5-9 lines long ; pale, lodicules, 

 stamens and grain as in A. congesta. 



E&bitSit : Natal. Near Durban, Williamson ; near Tugela, 4000 feet, 

 Buchanan 2'60 ; near Tugela, TFood 3588 ; near Colens'o, 3000 feet, Wood 4418 

 Umsinga and base of Biggarsberg, Buchanan 90; without precise locality, Gcirard 

 Zululand, Jenkinson 40 {Wood 12>0b) ; Zululand, Jenkinson 64 [Wood 7339) 

 Gerrard and McKen 167. 



Drawn from Wood's 3588, and compared with 4418. 



The Flora Capensis says : " Very close to A. congesta, but the branches of 

 the panicle are more numerous and longer, the sjoikelets a little larger, and the 

 mouth of the sheaths is distinctly bearded, the beards sometimes uniting into a 

 ring at the junction of the blade and the sheath." 



Jenkinson says : " Native name N'gongoni, used for brushes, grows in dry, 

 exposed situations on poor soil, has long roots, stands drought well, first green in 

 spring, last to dry up, very wiry and of little value for stock." 



Fig I, Lower glume ; 2, upper gkiine ; 3, valve ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens and lodicules. 

 All enlarr/ed. 



