Leptocarydion, Hochst. ex Benth 



Spikelets 4 to S -flowered, laterally compressed, sessile or subsessile, secuiid, 

 biseriate, close, on a very slender rhachis ; rhachilla disarticulating above the 

 glumes and between the valves. Florets bisexual, the uppermost reduced. 



Glumes subequal, lanceolate, acuminate, 1 -nerved, keeled. Valves oblong, 

 truncate, minutely 4-toothed (teeth hyaline), thin, 3-nerved, iimrgins inflexed, 

 nerves ciliate, the middle nerve excurrent into a fine bristle, the side-nerves not 

 excurrent ; callus slender, acute bearded. Pales linear-oblong, slightly shorter 

 than the valves, 2-keeled. Lodicules 2, cuneate, delicate Stamens 3 ; anthers 

 minute. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, slender ; stigmas laterally exserted, very 

 slender, plumose. Grain linear, obtusely triquetrous, tightly embraced by the 

 scarcely changed valve and pale, free ; embryo less than ^ the length of the grain ; 

 hilum basal, punctifoi'm. , 



Species 3, in Africa. Allied to Trirapliis, but differing in the non-excurrent 

 side-nerves and the sessile unilateral spikelets. 



Annual — Culms tufted, many-noded; blades linear to oblong-lanceolate, 

 ligule hyaline, very short or obscure. Panicle spike-like, dense ; branches erect, 

 simple or with adpressed branchlets. 



PLATE 442. 



Leptocarydion Vulpiastrum, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 648). 



Nat. Order Graminese. 



Culms erect or ascending, 2 to 4 feet long, simple or sometimes branched 

 (branches intravaginal), many-noded, internodes shortly exserted, glabrous, smooth ; 

 sheaths tight, glabrous, smooth or somewhat rough, striate ; ligule up to \ line 

 long, truncate, ciliolate, soon evanescent ; blades lanceolate-oblong from a rounded 

 abruptly constricted base, acute, 1 to 8 inches, by 3 to 6 lines, flat or involute, 

 smooth or finely scaberulous below, glaucescent, finely many-nerved, primary 

 nerves about 7 on each side. 



Panicle spike-like, 2 to 8 inches by J to f inch, pallid or faintly purplish, very 

 dense ; branches up to 1 inch long, branched from the villous base ; branchlets 5 to 

 Irspiculate, up to 3 lines long. 



Spikelets crowded, adpressed, 5 to 9-flowered, up to 3 lines long; rhachilla 

 very slender. 



■ Glumes reddish, subhyaline, the hirer lanceolate, acuminate, mucronate, about 

 Ij line long; the ?</j/;er linear-oblong, about if line long. Valves 1;^ line long, 

 pubescent below the middle, long and finely ciliate along the side-nerves. Anthers 

 5 line long, ovates grain linear, obtusely triquetrous, less than ^ line by less than 

 \ line. 



Also in tropical East Africa as far north as Usambara. 



Habitat : Natal. Banks of Tugela and its tributaries, 600 to 1000 feet alt., 

 Buchanan 187. 



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

 All enlarged. 



