EiiRHAKTA, Thunb. 



SpiKKr.ETS laterally compressed, panicled or racemed, sometimes solitary, pedicelled ; 

 rhachilla disarticulating below the valves, more or less obscurely produced. Florets 

 3 ; lower 2 reduced to empty valves, uppermost hermaphrodite. 



GiA'.MKS persistent, membranous. Valves 3, heteromorphous ; the lou-er '2 

 empty, usually exce?ding the glumes, more or less cartilaginous, often bearded, and 

 the vpper with a callous ap])endage at the base, awnless or awned ; the uppermost 

 fertile, smaller, thinner, aA\'nless, sometimes with a knob-like appendage at the base 

 forming a hinge with the appendage of the upper empty valve. Pale narrow, keeled, 

 finely 2-nerved, nerves very close. Lodicules 2. Stamens (i or 3, very rarely 1 . Styles dis- 

 tinct, short ; stigmas plumose or brush-like, exserted above the base. Grain elliptic, much 

 compressed ; hilum a fine line almost as long as the grain ; embryo about ^5 of the grain. 



Perknnials ok annuals of Aery varied habit, sometimes bulbous at the base or 

 suffretescent ; blades flat or convolute, sometimes much reduced or suppressed ; 

 ligules membranous, usually short or reduced to a narrow rim ; panicle or racemes 

 sometimes very scanty or even reduced to solitar}' spikelets. 



Species 25 in South Africa, one of them also in a slightly different form in East 

 Africa, tropical Arabia, the Mascarene Islands, and India (here probably introduced). 



PLATE 446. 



Eheharta errcta, Lam., var. natalensis, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 671). 



Nat. Order Graminete. 



Perennial. — Culais tufted, geniculate-ascending from a procumbent often 

 copiously branched base, slender, weak or wiry below, up to 2 feet long, gkbrous, very 

 rarely reA'ersedly pubescent below the nodes, smooth, 5 to 6-noded, sheaths tight, the 

 lowest ultimately slipping from the culm, glabrous, rarely finely hairy, smooth ; 

 ligules obtuse or truncate, up to 3 lines long ; blades linear from a clasping often 

 fimbriate base, gradually tapering, 2 to 6 inches by 1 J to 5 lines, flat, flaccid, glabrous, 

 rarely hairy, smooth or subscaberulous, margins often wavy, scabrid or ciliate. 



Panicle erect or nodding, narrow, 2 to 8 inches long, loose, sometimes reduced 

 to a raceme ; branches distant, the lowest 2-3-nate, very unequal, the longest up to 1 

 to 3 inches, erect or spreading, simple or sparingly branched, filiform to almost capil- 

 lary, flexuous, glabrous or scaberulous abo\'e ; pedicels capillarj^, scaberulous to puber- 

 ulous, up to 4 lines or more long. 



Spikelets light green, oblong, 1^ to 2 lines, very rarely 2|- lines long. 



Glumes ovate, obtuse or apiculate, 5-nerA^ed, the lowest ^i^ 1 line, the upper 1\ line 

 long ; empty valves oblong, obtuse or truncate, smooth and shiny or scaberulous, trans- 

 versely rugose, faintly o-nerved, the lower 1\ to 1 J line, the upper longer by ^ to j, with 

 a pair of obscure beardless ridges at the base ; fertile valve oblong, obtuse to subacute, \\ 

 to If lines long, glabrous, smooth, obscurely 5 to 7 -nerved ; lodicules usually glabrous. 

 Stamens 6 ; anthers J to f line long ; stigmas brush -like ; grain 1 line long. 



Var. natalensis (Stapf). Culms usually reversedly pubescent below the nodes ; 

 sheaths and blades pubescent ; branches of the panicle and the pedicels often densely 

 and minutely pubescent. Spikelets 2 to 2|- hues long ; empty valves scabrid and 

 p-.iberulous ; fertile valve obscurely bearded at the base. Stamens 3 (always ?). 



E&hifjSit : Natal. Clairmont, 50 feet alt., Wood 7260 ; Drakensberg, near 

 Newcastle, Buchanan 177 ; [Tmsinga and base of Biggarsberg, Buchanan 94 ; Eiet 

 Vlei, Buchanan 287. 



In a slightly different form also in tropical East Africa as far as Abyssinia, and 

 (probably introduced) in tropical Arabia, the Mascarene Islands, and India. 



In our specimens the glumes are 7 -9 -nerved, as shown in plate, not 5 -nerved as 

 stated, and there are always 4 stamens. 



Fig 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume; 3, 1st valve ; 4, 2nd valve in profile ; 5, fertile 

 valve ; 6, pale ; 7, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 



