PLATE 489. 



DiPLACHNE Eleusine, Nees. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 591). 

 Nat. Order Gramineee. 



Perennial, glabrous. Culms tufted, 1 to 2 feet long, geniculately ascending, 

 terete, smooth, simple or branched below, 3-noded, internodes exserted ; sheaths 

 rather tight and firui, smooth, the lower keeled ; ligules membranous, very short, 

 truncate, denticulate, ciliate ; blades linear, tapering to a tine point, 4 to 9 inches, 

 by 1 to 2 lines, more or less flaccid, scabrid on both sides or rather smooth below. 



Panicle narrow, consisting of 2 to 8 erect, distant spikes or spike- like 

 racemes ; rhachis angular, finely scaberulous or almost smooth ; branches 1 to 4 

 inches long, flexuous. 



Spikelets unilateral, imbricate or 2-seriate, subsessile, 2 to 3-lines long, 5 to 

 8 -flowered, light green. 



Glumes lanceolate in profile, obtuse or subacute, 1^ and Ij line long respec- 

 tively, whitish, keel green. Valves oblong, very obtuse, entire, up to J line long, 

 tips broad, hyaline, side-nerves finely silky, evanescent below the tips. Pales 

 obtuse. Anthers not quite ^ line long ; grain elliptic, flat, f to | line by ^ line. 



Eabitdt : Natal. Banks of Tugela Kiver, 700 feet alt. Buchanan 207. 



Drawn from Buchanan's specimen, the only one in'the Herbarium. 

 Valves 1^ line long, not J line as quoted in the Flora Capensis. 



Fig 1, lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, valve; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens aud lodicules ; 

 6, spikelet. All enlarged. 



