PLATE 415. 



Eragrostis nebulosa, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 603), 

 Nat. Order Graminete, 



Perennial, densely tufted on a short oblique rhizome. 



Culms erects rather slender, stiff, 2 to 3 feet long, glabrous, smooth, about 

 3-noded, internodes long, exserted, nodes slightly marked ; loiver sheaths com- 

 pressed, more or less kee'ed, 4 to 5 inches long, very firm, usually scarcely striate, 

 ■quite glabrous, very smooth, often shining, upper tight, terete scantily bearded at 

 the mouth or quite glabroTis ; ligule a fringe of very minute hairs ; b'ades very 

 narrow, finely filiform and caniculate below, capillary in the upper part, 1 foot long 

 or longer, conspicuously narrower than the sheath at their junction, rather rigid 

 below, very flexuous above, glabrous, smooth or scaberulous towards the tips. 



Panicle erect or nodding, large, at length open and very lax, f to 1|- foot 

 long and almost as wide, axis filiform, terete, smooth ; branches 3-2-nate or partly 

 solitary, at length spreading, the longest 4 to 6 inches long and undivided for 1 to 

 2 inches from the base, then like the rest distantly branched, finely filiform, 

 glabrous, smooth or scaberulous ; branchlets again scantily and loosely divided, up 

 to 1^ inch long, like the often long pedicels capillary and very flexuous. 



Spikelets linear, acute, 2 to 3 lines by ^^ to f line, loosely 4 to iO-flowered, 

 olive-grey ; rhachilla subpersistent, very slender, smooth. 



Glumes subequal, lanceolate, acute in profile, f to | line long, delicate, 

 1-nerved, keel scaberulous Valves lanceolate-oblong- in profile, acute to sub- 

 acuminate I line long, membranous, smooth, slightly shinmg, side-nerves faint and 

 short. Pales equalling the valves, keels smooth or almost so. Anthers g- to |- line 

 long ; grain oblong, | line by ^ line, brown. 



Ha.bitat : Natal. On the Drakensberg Range, near Newcastle, Buchanan 

 196 ; De Beer's Pass, 5000-6000 feet alt., Wood 5992 ; Mooi River, 3000 to 4000 

 feet alt , Mason 40 {Wood 7325) ; near Greytown, 3000-4000 feet alt.. Wood 7343. 



Drawn from Wood's 7343. 



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

 All enlarged. 



