DACTVLOCTENIUir, Willd. 



Spikelets 3 to 5 -flowered, laterally compressed, densely imbricate, bi seriate, sessile, 

 unilateral on a flattened rhachis, the uppermost reduced ; rhachilla tardil}' disarticu- 

 lating above the glumes, tough between the valves. Florets bisexual, the uppermost 

 rudimentary. 



Glumes 2, unequal, strongly keeled, the lower ovate, acute, thin, persistent, the 

 upper elliptic-oblong in profile, obtuse, mucronate or aA^'ned, firm, deciduous. 

 Valves ovate, sub-acuminate, 3 -nerved, mucronate or awned, deciduous with tlae 

 grains. Pales about as long as the A-ahes, 2-keeled, subpersistent. Lodicules '2, 

 cuneate, minute. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, wrj long, subter- 

 minally exserted. Grain subglobose slightly laterally compressed, not grooved or 

 hollowed, rugose or punctate ; pericarjD very delicate, irregularly breaking away ; 

 embryo scarcely equalling J the length o£ the grain ; hilum basal, punctiform. 



Annual ob perennial. LeaA-es flat, subflaccid. Spikes in umbels of 2 to 6, 

 erect or stellately spreading ; tips o£ the rhachis barren, mucroniform, usually curved. 



Species 3, one widely spread through the tropics. 



PLATE 441. 

 Dactyloctenium ^gyptiacum, Willd. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 646). 



Nat. Order GraminejB. 



Annual, 1-\\ foot high ; stems sometimes prostrate, rooting from the prolifer- 

 ously branched nodes. 



Culms geniculately ascending, compressed, 2-3-noded, glabrous, smooth, inter- 

 nodes exserted ; sheaths striate, the lower whitish, keeled above, glabrous, or scantily 

 hispid ; ligules membranous, very short, scantily ciliolate ; blades linear, tapei-ing to a 

 fine point, 1 to 5 inches by 1 to 2 lines, flat, subflaccid, glaucous, glabrous or hispid or 

 hispidly ciliate, hairs tubercle -based. Spikes 2 to 6, rarely solitary, J to 2 inches 

 long, light or dark olive-grey ; rhachis keeled, scabrid. 



Spikelets 3 to 5-flowered, spreading at right angles, up to IJ line long, 

 glabrous. 



Glumes, lower about | line long, the upper cuspidately mucronate or awned ; awn 

 curved, sometimes exceeding the glume. Valves 1^ to 1 J line long, mucronate or 

 awned ; anthers about |- to | line long ; grain J to f line long, very rugose, reddish. 



Widely spread through tropical and subtropica,! regions. 



Habitat : Natal. Near Durban, Williamson 38 ; Plant 85 ; Durban Flats, 

 Buchanan 36 ; Berea, Wood 5929 ; G'enard and McKen 111 ; Zululand, 2000 feet 

 alt., Jenkinson 7. 



This is the grass so much used for lawns in the Colony. It will succeed under 

 light shade, and in the coast districts keeps green all the \\'inter, and is liked by stock. 

 Native name, is-Inane. 



In " Useful Plants of the Island of Guam," pubhshed by the United States 

 National Herbarium, it is stated that this grass is " edible, but coarse and not mucli 

 relished by horses." 



Fig 1, A spikelet ; 2, lower glume ; .■5, upper glume; 4, valve ; 5, pale ; 6, pistil, stamens 

 and -lodicules ; 7, portion of leaf, highly magnified, showing tnbercle-based hairs. All 

 enlarged. 



