PLATE 486. 



Sporobolus fimbriatus, Xees. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 585). 



Xat. Order Gramiiiete. 



Perennial, densely tufted. Culms usually geniculate, 2 to 3 feet long, smooth, 

 glabrous, 2 to 4-noded ; sheaths glabrous except the sometimes ciliate or fimbriate 

 margins, smooth, firm, the lowest pallid, more or less compressed and subcarinate ; 

 ligule a ciliate rim ; blades linear, tapering to a long setaceous point, 5 to 10 inches 

 by 1 to 2 lines, flat or folded with the margins rolled in, glabrous, rarely with long 

 fine spreading hairs near the base, smooth or scaberulous. 



Panicle erect, subflexuous or nodding, 8 to 12 inches by 1 to 2 inches (when 

 open) ; branches solitary, irregularly crowded, 1 to 3 inches long, flat, at length more 

 or less spreading, filiform, repeatedly branched from the base, lower secondary 

 branchlets up to 9 lines long, smooth or almost so ; lateral pedicels very short. 



Spikelets greyish-green, | to 1 line long, crowded or rather lax. 



Glumes unequal, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, the lower hyaline, equalling 

 about J the length of the spikelet, the upper as long as the valve or slightly longer, 

 1 -nerved ; valve ovate -lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 1 nerved. Stamens 3 ; anthers 

 ^ line long. Grain obovoid, truncate, quadrangular, very slightly compressed, f line 

 long ; pericarp delicate. 



Habitat : Natal. Near Durban, below 500 feet alt., Drege ; and without precise 

 locality, Gerrard 602. 



As we had no specimen of this grass in the Herbarium the drawing was made 

 from a specimen kindly lent from the collection of Dr. H. Bolus, Capetown. The 

 specimen was gathered on a stony hillside near Graaff-Reinet in April, 1867, and is 

 Bolus 555. 



Fig I, Spikelets; 2, Lower glume; 3, upper glume; 4, valve; 5, pale; 6, stamens; 

 7, lodicules and pistil. All enlarged. 



