PLATE 426. 



Eragrostis gummiflua, Nees. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 629). 



Nat. Order Gramineai. 



Perennial, compactly cfespitose. — Culms firm, erect, slender or somewhat 

 stout, 1 to 2 feet long, glabrous, smooth, usually very viscous below the nodes, 3 

 to 5-noded, internodes exserted ; sheaths tight, striate, glabrous except at the 

 bearded mouth, more or less viscous, lowest persistent ; ligule a dense fringe of 

 minute hairs ; blades narrow, linear, tapering to a setaceous point, usually filiform- 

 convolute, 4 to 10 inches long, 1 to 2 lines wide at the base when expanded, rigid, 

 glabrous, smooth on the back, densely scabrid along the projecting nerves on the 

 upper side. 



Panicle linear or narrow-oblong, erect, 6 to 10 inches long ; rhachis angular, 

 smooth ; branches solitary or irregularly approximate and subverticillate, erect or 

 obliquely erect, short or the lower up to 3 inches long, angular, smooth, divided 

 from the base ; branchlets mostly very short, subsecund, with the spikelets in dense 

 clusters ; pedicels very short. 



Spikelets oblong, obtuse, up to 2 lines long, pui'plish or light brown, rigid, 

 loosely 5 to y-flowered ; rhachilla disarticulating. 



Glumes subequal, oblong-lanceolate, acute, about ^ line long, strongly keeled, 

 keel scaberulous ; valves oblong in profile, obtuse, f line long, rigidly membranous, 

 side nerves very prominent, keel scaberulous above. Pales subequal to the valves, 

 and falling with them, keels scabrid above. Stamens 3 ; anthers § line long ; 

 grain oblong-ellipsoid, ^5 to ^ line long, brown, smooth. 



Ha,Mta,t : Natal. Without precise locality, G&irard 680 ; near Dundee, 

 4000 feet alt., W. E. Green 95, 96 {Wood 7451). 



Drawn from Green's specimens, the only Natal one in the Herbarium. 



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

 All enlarged. 



