PLATE 461. 



Bromus unioloibes, H.B.K. (F1 Cap., Vol. VII., p. 734). 



Nat. Order Graminese. 



Annual. — Culms fascicled, erect or suberect, slender to stout, 1 to 2 feet long, 

 glabrous, smooth, 2-3-noded, uppermost internodes long exserted ; lon-er sheaths 

 thin, pallid, finely tomentose to spreadingly villous, upiier green, prominently 

 .striate, glabrescent or glabrous and smooth ; ligules ovate, obtuse, 1 to 2 lines 

 long. Blades linear, tapering to an acute point, 3 to 8 inches by 1 to 4 lines, flat, 

 more or less flaccid, scaberulous or scabrid on both sides and along the margins, 

 glabrous or softly hairy to villous. 



Panicle narrow, usually nodding, scantily divided or reduced to a raceme, 

 from a few inches to almost 1 foot long ; axis terete, striate, smooth below, angular 

 and scaberulous above ; lower branches remote, 2-3-nate, 2 to 4- (rarely 5) 

 spiculate, or all 1-spiculate, filiform, angular, scabrid, longest 2 to 3 inches long; 

 pedicels very unequal, lateral usually extremely short. 



Spikelets erect or suberect, 8 to 15 lines long, lanceolate-oblong to oblong, 

 strongly compressed, light green to glaucous, 4 to 10-flowered; rhachilla very 

 fragile ; joints stout, up to 1 j line long, scaberulous on the outer side. Florets 

 permanently closed, cleistogamous. 



Glumes lanceolate, acute or acuminate, firm except at the narrow white 

 hyaline margins, glabrous, smooth except on the scaberulous keels, lower ^\ to oj 

 lines long, 5 to 7-nerved, upper 5J-8 lines long, 7-9-nerved, nerves prominent. 

 Valves lanceolate in profile, usually very minutely 2-toothed, mucronate or shortly 

 awned, 6 to 8 lines long, acutely keeled, herbaceous-chartaceous, green, whitish 

 below, scabrid, about 13-nerved, margins straight to about \ their length from the 

 base, then hyaline, white, nerves prominent. Pales 3 to 5j lines long, folded 

 between the crested rigidly ciliolate keels ; filaments short, extremely delicate, 

 clavate-tipped ; anthers ellipsoid, usually about ^ line long, permanently enclosed 

 in the floret ; ovary top with a large 3-lobed villous appendage ; stigmas short, 

 sessile, slender, loosely plumose ; grain strongly compressed, linear-oblong, deeply 

 grooved in front, tightly adhering to the valve and pale. 



EabitSit : Natal. Hermansberg Station, 3000 feet alt., Buchanan 235. 

 Probably a native of South America, often grown for fodder. 



Fig- 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, -valye in profile ; 4, pale ; 5, ] istil, stamens and 

 lodieules ; 6, grain. All enlarged. 



