PLATE 408. 



Sporobolus indicus, K. Br. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 586). 



Nat. Order Gramineaj. 



Perennial, tuf'tei.— Culms erect, 2 to 3 feet long, glabrous, smooth, usaally 

 2-noded below the middle, sheathed all along or the upper nodes exserted. 



Leaves mostly crowded near the base, often numerous ; sheaths glabrous 

 except at the often ciliate margins, smooth, the lowest sometimes compressed, short, 

 broad, pallid, the upper tight ; ligule a minutely ciliolate rim ; blades linear, long 

 tapering to a fine point, 4 to almost 12 inches, by 1 to Ij lines, usually convolute, 

 glabrous, smooth. 



Panicle erect, spike-like, slender, often interrupted below ; branches solitary, 

 often irregularly crowded, very short and adpressed to the rhachis, or the lowest 

 up to 1 inch long, filiform, smooth or scaberulous ; lateral pedicels very short. 



Spikelets dark olive-green, crowded, 1 line long. 



Glumes unequal, the loiver oblong or elliptic, obtuse, often denticulate, about 

 \ the length of the spikelet, nerveless, the ujiper ovate-oblong, acute or subacute, 

 about f the length of the spikelet, sometimes 1 -nerved. Valve lanceolate-oblong, 

 acute or acuminate, 1 -nerved. Pale scarcely shorter. Stamens 3 ; anthers J line 

 long ; grain ellipsoid, truncate, quadrangular, slightly compressed, i line long, 

 brown, pericarp thin, 



Eabitat : Natal. Ge'rrard 388 ; Zululand, Jenkinson 6 {Wood 7303). 



Va7: laxus (Stapf), usually more robust ; panicle looser, |- to 1|- foot long ; 

 branches more distant, longer, more or less spreading ; spikelets often secund ; " all 

 over the Colony." 



Buchanan 243 ; near Durban, Williamson 2, 101 ; at the borders of 

 woods near the Umlazi River, Krauss 7, partly ; between the Umzimkulu and 

 Urakomanzi Rivers, Drege. 



Drawn from Jenkinson's 6 (Wood 7303). 



Jenkinson says of this grass : " Used for cattle, seeds much liked by birds- 

 and poultry." 



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

 All enlarged. 



