PLATE 429. 



Eragrostis namaquensis, Nees, var. robusta, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 630). 



Nat. Order Graminese. 



Annual or subperennial (?) tufted. — Culms erect, sleuder, J to 1 foot long, 

 glabrous, smooth, 1-noded, simple, upper internode by far the longest, long 

 exsevted ; sheaths striate, glabrous, tight, lowest more or less compressed and 

 keeled. Blades linear, tapering to a fine point, '2 to 4 inches, by 1 to Ij line, flat, 

 flaccid, glabrous, smooth. 



Panicle tightly contracted and linear or moi'e or less open and oblong, 4 to 6 

 inches long, erect ; axis smooth, terete ; branches solitary or 2-3-nate or irregularly 

 approximate, erect or obliquely spreading, rather loosely and repeatedly divided 

 from near the base, all divisions subcapilhiry, glnbrous, smooth or almost so ; 

 lateral pedicels usually very short. 



Spikelets crowded or more or less scattered, elliptic, obtuse, 1 line long, 

 about 5 or 6-flowered, light purplish or brownish ; rhachilla disarticulating. 



Glumes subequal, broad, oblong, obtuse, emarginate, ^ line long, hyaline, 

 1-nerved, persistent. Valves oblong in profile, obtuse, § line long, hyaline, side- 

 nerves prominent, smooth, like the keel. Pales subequal to the valves, keels 

 smooth, falling with the valves. Stamens 2 ; anthers almost j line long. Grain 

 oblong, J line by ^ line, brown, smooth. 



Var. robusta (Stapf). — Culms stout, up to 3 feet high, 3-noded, simple or 

 branched below ; sheaths long, exceeding the internodes (except the uppermost) 

 usually slipping from the stem and rolling inwards in the upper part. Panicle f 

 to 1 J- foot long, usually contracted, dense ; branches more numerous, often very 

 long ; anthers ^ line long or almost so. 



Habitdt : Natal. Var. robusta, by streamlets at 1000 feet alt,, without precise 

 locality, Buchanan 276. 



Drawn from Buchanan's specimen, tlie only one in the Herbarium. 



In our specimen the valves are emarginate like the glumes. 



Fig 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, valve ; 3a, same in profile ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, 

 stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 



