PLATE 416. 



Erageostis plana, Nees. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. C>09). 



Nat. Order Gramineaj. 



Perennial, densely tufted. — Culms erect or suberect, strongly compressed, 

 2 to 3 feet long, glabrous, smooth, 3-noded, upper internodes long, usually more or 

 less exserted. 



Leaves crowded and almost flabellate at the base, striate, glabrous; lower 

 sheaths strongly compressed, keeled, pallid ; ligule a dense fringe of short hairs ; 

 blades very narrow, linear, long tapering to a setaceous point, tightly folded, 

 flexuous, 8 to more than 12 inches long, closely striate, smooth on the lower, 

 scabrid and whitish on the upper side. 



Panicle narrow linear to oblong, nodding, ^ to 1 foot long ; axis angular,, 

 smooth ; branches solitary, very unequally distant, erect or slightly spreading, 

 subflexuous or somewhat nodding, longest 1 to 4 inches long, finely filiform, more or 

 less triquetrous, smooth or scabrid along the angles, remotely divided from near 

 the base with the lower branchlets 3-2 spiculate, or all simply racemose ; pedicels 

 up to 1 J line long. 



Spikelets linear, 3 to 6 lines, by 1 line, olive-green to olive-grey, loosely 7 

 to 15-flowered ; rhachilla subpersistent. 



Glumes very unequal, lanceolate to oblong, acute or obtuse, pallid, 1 -nerved, 

 loiver about ^ line long, upper ^ line long. Valves somewhat spreading, obliquely 

 oblong in profile, fo'ded, acute or subacute, 1 to 1 J line long, keel smooth, like the. 

 side-nerves prominent, rigid, almost straight. Pales equal to the valves, keels- 

 curved, scaberulous above. Anthers f to f line long ; grain oblong, f line by J 

 line, reddish brown. 



Habitat : Natal. Berea, Wood 59'38, 5937 ; Mooi River, Wood 7320 ; Riet 

 Vlei, Buchanan 247 ; near Durban, Williamson 54 ; and without precise locality, 

 Buchanan 244. 



Drawn from Wood's 5937. 



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

 All enlarged. 



