PLATE 406. 



Spoeobolus centrifugus, Nees. (Fl, Cap., Vol. VII. , p. 584). 



Nat. Order Graminete, 



Perennial, compactly tufted. — Culms erect, rather slender, f to 2 feet long, 

 glabrous, smooth, usually 2 rarely 1-noded ; lower sheaths very firm, persistent, j 

 to 1|^ inch long, glabrous except the usually long-ciliate margins, sometimes hairy • 

 all over, smooth, finely striate, upper tight, the uppermost up to f foot long ; ligule 

 a very minutely ciliolate rim ; blades linear, usually very narrow, tapering to an 

 acute point, 3 to 10 inches, by ^ to 2 lines, involute, often setaceous, particularly 

 those of the barren shoots, rarely flat, firm, more or less glaucous, glabrous, except 

 the often serrulate-fimbriate lower margins, rarely scantily hairy, smooth below, 

 subscaberulous above, margins rough or tubercled. 



Panicle erect, ovate or ovate-oblong, 1 to 4 inches, by f to 2 inches, usually 

 rather dense ; lower branches in whorls of 8 to 5, obliquely erect or spreading, 

 filiform, smooth, branched from the middle or above it ; branchlets contracted ; 

 lateral pedicels very short. 



Spikelets rather crowded towards the tips of the branches, dark olivg-grey, 

 1 J to 2 J lines long. 



Glumes unequal, the loiver lanceolate-acuminate or acute, f to f the length 

 of the spikelet, rarely longer, 1-nerved or nerveless, the upper broad-obloug- 

 lanceolate, acutely acuminate, somewhat longer than the valve, 1-nerved, rarely 

 with 2 obscure side-nerves. Valve very similar, sometimes with 2 to 4 short 

 obscure side-nerves. Pale equalling the valve. Stamens 3 ; anthers | line long. 



Habitat : Natal. Near Durban, Williamson 3 ; Durban Flats, Buchanan 

 42, 64 ; on bare hills at Umpumulo, 2400 to 2800 feet alt., Buchanan 297 ; Um- 

 singa and base of Biggarsberg, B^ichanan 92 ; var. angustus ; Inanda, Rehmann 

 1854 ; Wood 1578 ; Zululand, 1000 feet alt., Buchanan 300 ; Van Eeenen Wood 



7218. 



Drawn from Wood's 7218, gathered at Van Eeenen, 5000-6000 feet alt. 



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

 All enlarged. 



