Leersia, Sw. 



Spikelets laterally compressed, very shortly pedicelled, panicled ; rhachilla 

 jointed above the rudimentary glumes. Floret 1, hermaphrodite. 



Glumes reduced to an obscure hyaline entire or 2-lobed rim. Valve 5-nerved, 

 subcartilaginous, awnless, keels and margins rigidly ciliate. Pale narrow, 3-nerved, 

 subcartilaginous except at the hyaline margins, grooved along the outer nerves 

 and tightly clasped by the inflexed margins of* the valve, keel rigidly ciliate. 

 Lodicules 2, fleshy, finely nerved, Stamens 6, 3 or 1. Styles distinct; stigmas 

 feathery. Grain ovate or oblong, compressed, embraced by the valve and the pale, 

 free ; embryo short. 



Perennial ; leaves narrow ; panicle usually flaccid with very slender branches. 



Species o-7, mostly in the tropics and the subtropical regions of both hemi- 

 spheres. 



PLATE 445. 



Leersia hexandra Sw. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII. p. 659). 



Nat. Order Graminea3. 



Perennial, rhizome creeping, stoloniferous ; innovation buds ovoid, subacute, 

 scales smooth, striate. Stems erect from a prostrate or ascending base, rooting 

 from the lower nodes, 2 to 4 feet high, simple or very sparingly branched, usually 

 slender and weak, many-noded, smooth, firmly striate ; uppermost internode 

 longest (up to J foot, rarely to 1 foot long) ; sheaths rather tight or the lower 

 loose and ultimately spreading, terete, usually shorter than the internodes, the 

 uppermost longest, reaching to or almost to the panicle, glabrous, slightly scabrid 

 or smooth, except the villous nodes ; ligule short, obliquely truncate or bilobed, 

 firmly membranous ; blades narrowly linear, tapering to a fine point, 3 to 6 inches, 

 by 1^ to 4 lines, glaucous, usually subrigid, very slightly scabrid. 



Panicle 2 to 4 inches long, ei-ect or more or less flaccid and nodding, narrow ; 

 branches suberect, simple, up to Ij inch long, filiform, flexuous, angular, slightly 

 scabrid or smooth. 



Spikelets often closely imbricate, subsecund and laterally concavo-convex, 

 obliquely oblong, Ij to 2 lines long, sometimes purplish ; sides of valve, scabrid or 

 smooth. Stamens 6 ; anthers 1 to Ij line long. 



Habitat: Natal. Durban Flats, Buchanan 22, 75, 96; Berea, 100 feet alt., 

 Wood 5944 ; Umlazi River, Krnuss 9 ; by the Tugela River, .600 feet alt., and at 

 Umpumulo, 2000 feet alt., Buchanan 281 ; (Icrrard and McKcn 25. 



Widely spread through the tropical and subtropical regions. 

 Fig 1, Valve ; 2, pale ; 3, pistil, stamens and lodicules, All enlarrfed. 



