PLATE 413. 



Eragrostis curvula, Nees, var. valida, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 599). 



Nat. Order Gramineee. 



Perennial, very densely tufted, with numerous closely packed innovation shoots. 



Culms erect or geniculate, usually slender, simple, 1 to 2 feet high, glabrous, 

 smooth, 2 to 3 noded, internodes usually exserted, uppermost very long; loiver sheaths 

 crowded, short, firm, strongly striate, tomentose at the base, gradually less hairy 

 to glabrous upwards, persistent, uppe?' tight, glabrous or rarely hairy, smooth ; 

 ligule a fringe of short hairs. Blades narrow, linear, long tapering and usually 

 capillary in the upper part, 3 inches to more than 1 foot long, 1 to 1|- line wide at 

 the base when expanded, more or less filiform-involute or convolute, at least in the 

 upper part, fiexuo'us, somewhat firm, glabrous, very rarely hairy, scabrid on the 

 upper side and all over towards the tips, otherwise smooth. 



Panicle open or contracted, erect or more or less nodding, 3 to 1 inches long ; 

 axis filiform, more or less angular, smooth, at least below ; branches solitary, unequally 

 distant or partly subverticillate, first erect then more or less spreading, finely filiform, 

 flexuous, smooth or almost so, glabrous or sometimes with a few tine hairs at the 

 axils, loiver divided from 3 to 6 lines above the base ; branchlets rather loose, usually 

 contracted, simple or the lowest again divided, smooth, rarely the ultimate divisions 

 scaberulous ; pedicels unequal, lateral usually short rarely up to 2 lines long. 



Spikelets linear-oblong to oblong, 2 to 3 lines by 1 line, loosely 3 to 6- 

 (rarely to 8-) flowered, usually dark olive-grey ; rhachilla subpersistent, then 

 disarticulating, more or less very minutely hairy. 



Glumes more or less unequal, lanceolate to oblong, acute to subobtuse, thinly 

 membranous to almost hyaline, 1 -nerved or sometimes nerveless, keel if present 

 scaberulous, upper up to 1 line long, lower slightly shorter. Valves lanceolate- 

 oblong in profile, obtuse or subobtuse, 1 line long or slightly longer, membranous, 

 scaberulous above the middle, tips usually hyaline and white, side-nerves fine. Pales 

 equal to the valves, obtuse, keels fine, smooth or scaberulous above. Anthers f to J line 

 long. Grain sub-ellipsoid, obtusely quadrangular, J line long, brown, embryo large. 



Var. conferta, Nees. — On the whole taller and more robust ; panicle con- 

 tracted, dense, with the branches more or less verticillate and divided from the base, 

 divisions more often scabrid than in the type. Spikelets usually crowded, linear 

 to linear-oblong, up to 5 lines long, and to 13-flowered, light olive-green to 

 dark olive-grey. 



Var. valida, Stapf — Culms usually robust, tall, 3 to 4-noded ; sheaths 

 glabrous and smooth or more or less hairy from often tubercle-based hairs ; blades 

 up to more than 2 feet, by 2 to 3 lines. Panicle ^ to 1 foot, contracted or open ; 

 axis smooth or scabrid ; branches 3 to 6 inches long, flexuous, much divided from 

 the base or simple for as much as 1 inch. Spikelets linear to linear-oblong, 3j to 5^ 

 lines long, 7 to i3-flowered. Glumes and valves very slightly larger than in the type. 



Habitat : Natal. Umsinga and base of Biggarsberg, Buchanan 93 ; var. 

 conferta, near Durban, Plant 57 ; G&irard and McKen 35 (approaching the type) ; 

 Umpumulo, 2000 feet alt., Buchanan 248, 249a ; very common at Riet Vlei, 4000 

 feet alt., Buchanan 78, 249 ; Gerrard Q75 (approaching the type) ; var. valida, 

 Berea, Wood 5940 ; Umhlanga, 6060 ; Van Reenen's Pass, 7224 ; Pietermaritz- 

 burg, 7229. 



A generally useful grass ; native name CJviti (Jenkinson). 



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

 All enlarffed. 



