Stipa, Linn. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, narrow, paniculate ; rhachilla disarticulating above the 

 glumes, not produced. 



Glumes usually persistent, narrow, 1 to 3 -nerved, muticous or mucronate. 

 Valves convolute, cylindric or bblong-cylindric, 5 to 7- (rarely 3) nerved, rather rigid, 

 tip gradually tapering, or minutely 2-lobed ; callus more or less bearded, usually 

 pungent ; awn simple, continuous with or jointed on the valve, bent or geniculate, 

 twisted below, plumose or naked above the knee. Pale 2-keeled or 2-nerved, almost 

 as long as the valve or much shorter. Lodicules usually 3, the posterior smaller or 

 suppressed.' Stamens 3, rarely fewer. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, short ; 

 stigmas plumose. Grain slender, cylindric or oblong -cylindric, terete or subterete, 

 sometimes grooved, tightly embraced by the hardened valve and the pale ; hilum 

 linear, almost as long as the grain ; embryo rather small. 



Perennial, rarely annual ; leaves often convolute, rarely flat ; ligules mem- 

 branous. 



Panicle from spike-like to efEuse. 



Numerous species, principally in the drier and warm regions of both hemispheres. 



PLATE 485. 



Stipa Dregeana, Steud. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 572). 

 Nat. Order Gramineas. 



Perennial, glabrous. Culms fascicled from a short prajmorse rhizome, erect, 2 

 to 4 feet high, 3-noded, smooth, internodes enclosed or more or less exserted ; lowest 

 sheaths much reduced, firm, scale-like, the following very tight, long, the uppermost 

 sometimes tumid, slightly rough, striate ; ligules obtuse, erose, up to 2 lines long ; 

 blades liaiear from a broad or slightly narrowed base, tapering to a Aery long fine 

 point, up to 1 J foot to 3 to 5 lines, flat, rather firm, smooth below, slightly rough 

 above, closely and very finely many-nerved. 



Panicle erect or slightly nodding, oblong, contracted, rarely open and pyramidal, 

 ^ to 1 foot long, branches fascicled or 3-2-nate, very unequal, the longest |- to 1 foot 

 long, undivided to J of their length or more, filiform, smooth ; pedicels scabrid, the 

 lateral shorter than the spikelets, the latter light green, 2^ to 3J lines long. 



Glumes subequal, 3 -nerved, subhyaline above, glabrous, the lower lanceolate- 

 acuminate, the upper lanceolate-oblong, acute or sub-acuminate. Valves oblong- 

 cylindric, convolute, obscurely bi-lobed, 2 to 2 J lines long, shortly hairy all over, 

 5 -nerved ; callus minute, obtuse, minutely hairy ; awn not disarticulating, 5 to 6 lines 

 long, scabrid, slightly twisted below, bent 1 to 2 lines above the base. Pale almost as 

 long as the valve, obtuse, hairy on the back ; lodicules 3, oblong, obtuse, the posterior 

 smaller. Anthers 1|- line long, naked. Grain oblong, cylindric, 1.^ line long. 



HaMtSkt : Natal. Riet Vlei, in bush, 5000 feet alt., Buchanan 239. 



Drawn from Buchanan's specimens, kindly lent for the purpose by the Director 

 of the Royal Gardens and Herbarium at Kew. 



The above described species is the only one of the genus Stipa that has yet been 

 found in Natal. 



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

 All enlarged. 



