PLATE 490. 



Eragrostis heteromeea, Stapf (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 610). 



Nat. Order Gramineae. 



Perennial. — Culms geniculate-ascending, stout, simple, over 2 feet long, 

 glabrous, smooth, 3-noded, internodes (except the lowest) exserted ; sheaths quite 

 glabrous except at the usually bearded mouth, smooth, more or less coarsely 

 striate, the lower not compressed, often purplish ; ligule a dense fringe of minute 

 hairs ; blades linear, tapering to a long, fine point, 6 to 8 inches, by J.^ to 2 lines 

 long, flat or more or less involute, rather soft, glabrous, smooth on the lower, 

 scaberulous on the upper side, midrib rather stout below, primary side-nerves 4-5, 

 prominent. 



Panicle oblong, nodding, 10 to 12 inches long; axis angular, striate or 

 sulcate, glabrous ; branches somewhat irregularly arranged, in false whorls or 2-4- 

 nate or solitary, sub-erect, flexiious to flaccid, unequal, divided from near the base 

 or undivided for 1 inch or more, capillary, scaberulous, the longest 4 to 6 inches 

 long; branchlets somewhat distant, short, contracted, 3-1 spiculate, very fine; 

 lateral pedicels very short. 



Spikblets linear, acute, 2 to 4 lines, by f to | line, olive-green, loosely 4 to 

 12-flowered ; rhachilla subpersistent, sparingly scaberulous. 



Glumes very unequal, lower a minute scale or quite suppressed, rarely over ^ 

 line long, upper lanceolate to oblong, subacute, J to I line long, hyaline, 1 -nerved. 

 Valves obliquely oblong, obtuse, | to 1 line long, keel scabrid and prominent like 

 the side nerves, rigid, almost straight ; pales equal to the valves, keels curved and 

 scabrid ; anthers f to f line long. 



Edbitat : Natal. Near Durban, Drege, by the Umlazi River and near Maritz- 

 burg ; Krauss, 43, by the Tugela River, 600 to 1,000 feet ; Buchanan, 241 ; 245a. 



Drawn from Buchanan's 241 ; 245a. 

 Fig 1, upper glume ; 2, valve ; 3, pale ; 4, pistil, stamens and lodicule§. All enlarged. 



