PLATE 418. 



Eragrostis chalcantha, Trin. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 615). 



Nat. Order Graminete. 



Perennial, densely csespitose. — Culms erect, straight. 5- to 1 foot long, 

 glabrous, smooth, 1-noded, uppermost internode occupying f or more of the culm 

 and long exserted. 



Leaves crowded at the base, more or less beset with spreading often tubercle- 

 based hairs, rarely quite glabrous ; sheaths striate, tight, bearded at the mouth or 

 not, lowest firm, persistent ; ligule a dense fringe of very short hairs ; blades 

 linear, tapering to a fine often subcallous point, 1 to 4 inches by 1 to 2 lines, flat 

 or more or less involute or convolute, particularly in the upper part, rigid, smooth 

 or scaberulous on the upper side, obscurely striate above, conspicuously so below. 



Panicle ovate to oblong, 1 to 3 inches long, more or less contracted ; axis 

 smooth below, compressed and scabrid along the angles above ; branches solitary, 

 spreading, 3 to 9 lines long, racemosely 6 to 2-spiculate or shorter and reduced to 

 a sing'e spikelet, filiform, more or less angular, scabrid ; pedicels often puberulous, 

 very short. 



Spikelets ovate-oblong to oblong, obtuse, somewhat turgid, 2J to 4 lines, by 

 Ij to If line, closely 7 to 15-flowered, olive-green to almost leaden-grey; rhachilla 

 persistent, smooth, joints very short. 



Glumes unequal, ovate, obtuse to subacute, upper longer, about f line long, 

 keels scabrid. Valves broadly and obliquely ovate, obtuse to subacute, 1 line long, 

 membranous, side-nerves more or less inconspicuous, keel scaberulous near the tip, 

 pales f line long, keels spinulously scabrid. Anthers about 2 to f line long. 

 Grain subglobose to almost cubic, less than J line long, brown, embryo very large. 



Ha,bita.t : Natal. Durban Bay, Krauss 295 ; Durban Flats, Buchanan 46 ; 

 Umpumulo, common, Buchanan 256 ; Rovelo Hills, Sutherland ; De Beer's Pass, 

 Wood 5995 ; near Maritzburg, Wood 7230 ; Van Reenen's Pass, 5000 to 6000 feet 

 alt.. Wood 7223. 



Drawn from Wood's 7223. The culms in this specimen are sometimes 

 2-noded. 



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

 All enlarfjed. 



