PLATE 421. 



Erageostis superba, Peyr. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., jj. o22). 

 Nat. Order Graminefe. 



Perennial, densely CEespitose with intravaginal innovations, glabrous. 



Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 2 to 3 feet long, rather stout, smooth, 

 2-noded, internodes exserted, uppermost very long ; sheaths smooth, bearded at 

 the mouth, lowest crowded, broad at the base, keeled, persistent, upper terete,, 

 tight ; ligule a fringe of short hairs ; blades linear, long tapering to an acute point,. 

 2 to 8 inches or more by 1 to 3 lines, firm, more or less rigid, upper often spreading, 

 usually more or less involute or convolute, rarely quite flat, smooth below, 

 scaberulous on the upper side. 



Panicle narrow, linear or oblong, often interrupted below, erect, 4 to 10' 

 inches long ; axis usually straight, smooth, terete below, angular above, branches 

 distant, erect or suberect, solitary, filiform, usually simply racemose, J to 3 inches 

 long, 1 to 10 spiculate, rarely branched; pedicels very unequal, lateral, J to 3 

 lines long. 



Spikelets articulated with the pedicels, deciduous, rather distant or clustered 

 towards the tips of the branches or branchlets, strongl}' compressed from the side, 

 suborbicular, ovate to ovate-oblong, 3 to 8 lines by 2J to 4j lines, straw-coloured 

 rarely more or less purplish, 7 to 3 7 -flowered. 



Glumes subequal, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate in proflle, acute or mucronate 

 IJ to 2 J lines long, 1 -nerved, firmly membranous, strongly keeled. Valves 

 obliquely oblong, subacute, l| to 2| lines long, acutely keeled, subchartaceous, 

 side-nerves prominent and often green. Pales 2-fid, keels winged, wings narrowed 

 upwards, produced into obtuse auricles at base, ciliolate. Anthers 1 line long ; 

 grain oblong, 1 line long ; pericarp loose ; seed truncate at both ends, sub- 

 quadrangular, brown. 



Eabitat: Natal. Weenen County, 5000 feet alt.. Wood 4416; at 3.^)00 feet 

 alt., WoodS587 ; banks of the Tugela Kiver, Buchanan 255 ; and without precise 

 locality, Gerrard 468 ; Zululand, Wood 7307. 



Also from Delagoa Bay, Forhes, and in tropical Africa. 



Drawn from Wood's 3587. 



The native name of this grass is Madolwana. 



Fi"- 1, Lower gluirie ; 2,' upper glume ; 3, valve ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens and lodicules. 

 All enlarged. 



