Perotis, Ait. 



Nat. Order Gramiiiese. 



Spikelets very small, narrow, sessile or subsessile on the continuous axis of a 

 ■spike or a lax spike-like raceme, jointed on and falling entire from the axis or the 

 rudimentary pedicels ; rhachilla not continued beyond the floret. Floret 1, perfect, 

 much shorter than the glumes. 



Glumes equal, linear or linear-lanceolate, rigidly membranous, 1 -nerved, 

 passing into capillary awns. Valve lanceolate, acute, delicately hyaline, 1 -nerved. 

 Pale very minute, hyaline, nerveless. Lodicules 2, broad, cuneate. Stamens 3. 

 Styles distinct, short ; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. Grain cylindric, 

 slender, exserted from the unchanged floret and enclosed with it in the glumes ; 

 embryo about ^ the length of the grain ; hilum punctiform, basal. 



Annual or subperennial. — Culms leafy; blades usually broad, rigid and 

 ciliate ; ligules hyaline ; spikes or pseudo-spikes slender, crinite from the long 

 capillary awns. 



Species 2 or 3, in the tropics of the Old World and in subtropical Australia. 



PLATE 403. 



Perotis latifolia. Ait. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 575). 



Culms fascicled, geniculate, suberect, ascending often from a few inches to Ij 

 inch long, smooth, glabrous, many-noded, lower internodes short, not or slightly 

 exserted, uppermost 1 or 2 by far the longest, long exserted ; leaves rather 

 numerous in the lower ^-|- of the culm ; sheaths thin, striate, smooth ; ligules very 

 delicate, short, ciliolate ; blades linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate from a clasping 

 broad base, acute or acuminate, f-3 inches by lJ-4 lines, flat or somewhat wavy, 

 glaucous, margins rigidly ciliate or fimbriate, rarely smooth ; spike slender, rigid 

 or flexuous, 3-8 inches long, rather dense ; axis smooth, terete. 



Spikelets about 1 line long* linear-lanceolate. 



Glumes scaberulous, 3-10 lines long, very fine, flexuous, often purplish. 

 Valve less than i line long ; pale under ^ line long ; tip finely ciliolate ; anthers 

 ^ line long ; grain almost 1 line long. 



Habitat : Natal. Near Durban, below 500 feet, Drege ; valleys between 

 Tugela and Umpuraulo, 1000 feet, Buchanan 168 ; without precise locality, 

 Gerrard 687 ; Van Reenen, 5000-6U00 feet. Wood 5990 ; near Durban, Wood. 



Drawn from Wood's 5990, from which the stamens and stigmas had fallen 

 away, these were drawn from Buchanan's 168. 



Fisf ], Lo-.ver glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, valve ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens and lodicules. 

 All enlarged. 



