Perotis, Ait. 
Nat. < )ider Graininete. 
Spikelets very small, narrow, sessile or siibsessile on the continuous axis of a 
spike or a lax spike-like raceme, jointed on and falling entire from tlie axis or tlie 
rudimentary pedicels ; rhachilla not continued beyond tlie floret. Floret 1, perfect, 
nuich shorter than the glumes. 
Glumes equal, linear or linear-lanceolate, rigidly membranous, 1 -nerved, 
]iassing into capillary awns. Valve lanceolate, acute, delicately hyaline, 1-nei-ved. 
Pale very minute, hyaline, nerveless. Lodicules 2, broad, cuneate. Stamens 3. 
Styles distinct, short ; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. Grain cylindric, 
slender, exserted from the unchanged floret and enclosed witli it in the glumes ; 
embryo about J the lengtii of the grain ; hilum punctifbrm. basal. 
Annual or subperennial. — Gulms leafy ; blades usually broad, rigid and 
ciliate ; ligules hyaline ; spikes or pseudo-spikes slender, crinite from tlie long 
ca})illary awns. 
Species 2 or 3, in the tropics of the Old World and in subtropical Australia. 
PLATE 403. 
Perotis latifollj^. Ait. (Fl. l^ap., Vol. VII., p. 575). 
GuLMs fascicled, geniculate, suberect, ascending often from a few inches to 1^ 
nich long, smooth, glabrous, many-noded, lower internodes short, not or slightly 
exserted, uppermost 1 or 2 by fir the longest, long exserted ; leaves rather 
numerous in the lower ^-^ of the culm ; sheaths thin, striate, smooth : ligules very 
delicate, short, ciliolate ; blades linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate from a clasping 
broad base, acute or acuminate, ^-3 inches by 1^-4 lines, flat or somewhat wavy, 
glaucous, margins rigidlv ciliate ()r fimbriate, rarely smootli ; s|)ike slendei', rigid 
or Hexuous, 3-8 inches long, rather dense : axis smooth, terete. 
Spikelets about 1 line long. biiear-]aiiee(.»late. 
Glumes scaberulous, 3-10 lines l(.)ng, very fine, flexuous, often ]»ur[»lislj. 
Valve less than ^ line long ; pale under ^ line long ; tij) finely ciliolate; anthers 
line long; grain almost 1 line long. 
Habitat : Natal. Near Durban, below 500 feet, Drcye ; valleys between 
Tugela and Umpumulo, lOOO feet, BiicIki iki n IGS ; without precise locality, 
(rerrard 6^7 ; Van Peeiien, SOOO-OUOO feet, Wood 5!)1,)0 ; near Durban, Wood. 
l)rawn from Wood's 5990, from which tlie stamens and stigmas had fallen 
away, tliese were drawn from Buchanan's 108. 
Fi<i' 1. Lower o'hime : 2, iqipi'r n'liiine ; 3, \ alve ; 4, ]iale : o, pistil. >tani('ns and l iiliculcs. 
A// cnhiryf'd. 
