MiCROCHLOA U. Br. 

 Spikelets 1-2-flowered, small, sessile, crowded, unilateral on a flattened rhachis. 



Alternating 2 -seriate from near the margins of the rhachis, or in a single row ; 

 rhachilla disarticulating above the glumes, more or less produced. Floret herma- 

 phrodite, or if 2, the loiver hermaphrodite, the upper male or indicated by an empt}- 

 valve. 



Gjx'mes 2, persistent or (particularly the upper) deciduous, strongly l-uerved, 

 flattened from the back or keeled, subequal. A alve shorter than the glumes, delicate, 

 white, minutely or obscurel}' mucronulate or emarginate, 3-nerved, densely hairy along 

 the nerves (if 2, the upper glabrous) ; callus small, acute hair}-. Pale slightly shorter 

 than the valve or almost equal, 2-keeled. Lodicules 2, cuneate, glabrous, thin, faintly 

 nerved. Stamens 3, ovary glabrous (quite sup^jressed in the upper floret) ; styles 

 distinct ; stigmas ]jlumose, laterally exserted. Grain oblong, terete, triquetrous or 

 conq:)ressed, embraced by tlie unchanged \'alvc and pale, free ; hiluni punctiform ; 

 embryo equalling j-|- the length of the grain. 



Perenniai., rarely annual, sometimes densel\' tufted ; leaves narrow, often 

 subsetaceous ; ligule reduced to a nnnutely ciliolate rim ; spikes solitary, terminal (in 

 the African species) or 2-4 in a terminal mnbe), straight or curved. 



Species 7, widely distributed through the tropics, 3 in Africa, 3 in Australia. 



PLATE 431. 



^IiCRociiEoA CAEFRA, Xees. (Fl. Cap., \o\. ^'IL, p. G36). 



Xat. Order Gramhiea-. 



Pekenniai., compactly cajspitose. — Cl'lms erect or geniculate-erect, very slender, 

 simple, 1^ to 1 foot long, compressed below, 1 to 2-noded, glabrous, smooth, internodes 

 exserted, the ujjpermost b}' far the longest. 



Leaves crowded at the base ; sheaths tight or the uppermost subtumid, glabrous 

 or ciliate at the mouth, smooth, the lowest persistent, breaking up into fibres : 

 blades subsetaceous, with an acute or callous point, |- to G inches long, folded, firm, 

 often curved, glabrous or scantil}' hairy near the base, smooth, margins rough. Spike 

 solitary, 2 to 3j inches long, usually curxcd, often purple, margins of the rhachis 

 ciliolate. 



Si'iKELETS l-flowered, dixergent and biseriate or imbricate and more or less 

 uniseriate, slightly dorsally compressed, 1| to 2| lines long, glabrous. 



Glumes lanceolate-oblong, acute or the upper acuminate, the loiver asynnnetric, 

 slightly longer. Valve minutely cuspidate, 1^ line long, densely hairy along the 

 nerves except at the very tip ; keels of pale scabrid, ciliolate above the middle. 

 Anthers not quite 1 Ihie long. Grain terete, over ^ line long. 



Eabitat : Natal. Riet Vlei, 4000-5000 feet alt., Buchanan 1G2 ; South 

 Downs, Weenen County, 4000 feet alt., Wood 4403 ; Benvie, 3000-4000 feet alt., 

 Wood 6007 ; Pietermaritzburg, Wood 7226. 



9 



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



All enlarged. 



