PLATE 402. 
Aristida VE8TITA, Thiiiib. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 561). 
Nat. Oi'der Gramineie. 
Perennial, light green to glaucous ; rhizome very sliort, with dense tufts of 
barren shoots and cu'.ms, the latter erect, 1-2 feet liigh, simple, 2-1-noded, terete, 
wiry, glabrous, smooth ; sheaths tight, smooth, scarcely striate, glabrous or the 
lower more or less covered with a very fugacious avooI ; ligule a line of very short 
hairs ; blades convolute-setaceous from a few inches to more than 1 foot by scarcely 
1 line when expanded, rigid, curved or flexuous, glaljrous, smooth below, scabrid to 
his])idulous above. 
Panicle effuse or contracted, 8-G incljes by 2-5 inches ; rhachis strict or 
flexuous; lower branches 2-3-nate, 1^ to 3 inches long, usually spreading, sparingly 
and remotely branclied ; branchlets very Hexuous, tiliforin to capillary, scaberulous ; 
pedicels very line, the longest e([ualling the spikelets. 
Spikelets often secund, nodding, yellowish, rarely pur})lish, 5-0 lines long. 
Glumes rather firm, rounded at the back, obtuse or more or less 2-toothed, 
the Joirer linear-oblong, about half the length of the u})per or less, this 
narrow lanceolate-linear, 5-6 lines h^ng. Valve linear, 4^ to 5|- lines long, not 
l)eaked, scaberulous from the middle or almost smootli ; callus ^ line long: awn 
<lisarticulating from tlie valve, stipitate, f »ot 1 t<-) 2^ lines long, twisted, bristles 
divaricate or the lateral upright, f to 1 inch long ; ]:>ale broad, ^ \\ne long ; 
lodicules |-;| line long, hnely nerved ; anthers 2^ lines long ; grain very slendei', 
-3 lines long. 
Hlbitat: Natal. Near Dundee, Gireu DO {Wn<>d 7450), March, 1899. 
Fig 1, Lower glnnu:" : 
AU cnldri/cd. 
2, iip])er gliiine : .3, valve : 4, pale : 5, pistil, stamens, and lodicules. 
