PLATE No. 401. 
Aristida baebk'Ollts, Trill, and \{\\\n-. (Fl. (Zap., Vol. Yll., p. 55'.)) 
Nat. Order Graininea?. 
Perennial, tufted, light green to glaucous, glabrous except at the nioaths of 
the sheaths. 
Culms slender, rather M'iry, more or less compressed below, geniculately 
ascending or suberect, ^ to 1^ foot long, simple or scantily branched from some of 
the lower nodes, smootli, '2-3-noded ; sheaths tight, smooth ; ligule a dense line of 
short hairs passing into beards or a ring of long hairs at the mouths of the 
sheatlis ; blades usually very narrow, linear, acute, l-o inches bv to I Hue, folded ; 
convolute, curved, rigid or flat and then often twisted or curled, sniootli below, 
scabrid above. 
Panicle ovate to oblong, 2-(> inclies long : rhachis straight or flexuous, siiK-oth ; 
branches solitary, distant, flliforin, spreading, flexuous or straight, scaberuloiis, 
den.se, spike-like from ^ to H inch above the base ; pedicels very sliort. 
Spikelets 3^ lines long. 
Glumes keeled, the /n^rcr lanceolate, sliort ly inacronate,2 lines long, keels smooth 
or scal)rid, the ^'j>J>'''' Hnear, emarginate, mucronate, 3^ lines long. Valve linear, 
produced into a short, stout, tightly twisted beak, s(»mewhat shorter than the upper 
glume, minutely scaberulous beloAx- the beak ; callus less than ^ line long ; awns 
jointed with the valve, not disarticulating, flne, 5-9 lines long ; })ale, lodicules, 
stamens and grain as in A. coiujesta. 
HcibitRt : Natal. Near l)url)an, WilHainson ; near Tugela, 4000 feet, 
J)>ic/i>iiiait 2^0 ; near Tugela, M'ood ;;>5H8 ; near Colenso, 3000 feet, Woo'l 4418; 
Umsinga and base of Biggarsberg, Buc/iauan IM); without precise locality, (rci vard; 
Zululand, Jcnkiiisoii 40 [Wixxl 7305): Zululand, Jenkinson 64 [Wood 7339); 
Gerrui-d and McKen 1G7. 
Drawn from Wood's 3588, and coin])ared with 4418. 
The Flora Capensis says : "Very close to ^1. coi/f/esta, but the brandies of 
the })anicle are more numerous and longer, tlie spikelets a little larger, and the 
mouth of the sheaths is distinctlv bearded, the beards sometimes uniting into a 
ring at the junction of the blade and the slieatli." 
Jenkinson says : " Native name N'gongoni, used for brushes, grows in dry, 
exposed situations on poor soil, has long roots, stands drought well, tirst green in 
spring, last to dry up, very wiry and of little value for stock." 
Fig 1, Lower i>']'i"ic : 2. ii]i]ier li'hinu' : 3. valve : 4, pale : 5, pistil, stamens ami Idcheiiles. 
AH enhiri/fd. 
