PLATE 408. 
Spurobolus indicus, Pi. Br. (Fl. Cap., Vol. YIL, p. 586). 
Nat. Order Graniinea?. 
Perennial, tiifte:!. — Culms erect, 2 to 3 feet long, glabrous, smooth, usaally 
2-nocIed below the middle, sheathed all along or the upper nodes exserted. 
Leaves mostly crowded near the base, often numerous ; sheaths glabrous 
except at the often ciliate margins, smooth, the lowest sometimes compressed, short, 
broad, pallid, the upper tight ; ligule a minutely ciliolate riia ; blades linear, long- 
tapering to a fine point, 4 to almost 12 inches, by 1 to lines, usually convolute,, 
glabrous, smooth. 
Panicle erect, spike-like, slender, often interrvipted below ; branches solitary, 
often irregularly crowded, very short and adpressed to the rhachis, or the lowest 
up to 1 inch long, filiform, smooth or scaberulous ; lateral pedicels very short. 
Spikelets dark olive-green, crowded, 1 line long. 
Glumes unequal, the lower oblong or elliptic, obtuse, often denticulate, about 
^ the length of the spikelet, nerveless, the upper ovate-oblong, acute or subacute, 
about § the length of tlie spikelet, sometimes 1 -nerved. Valve lanceolate-oblong,, 
acute or acuminate, 1 -nerved. Pale scarcely shorter. Stamens 3 ; anthers ^ line 
long ; grain ellipsoid, truncate, quadrangular, slightly compressed, 4 line long,, 
bi'own, pei'icarp thin. 
Habitat: Natal. Geirard 388 ; Z\\\\\\-a\\(\, JenUnson 6 {Wood 7303). 
Var. la.rvs (Sta])f), usually more robust ; panicle looser, |- to foot long ; 
branches more distant, longer, more or less spreading ; spikelets often secund ; " all 
over the Colony." 
Bnehanan, 243 ; near Durban, Williamson 2, 101 ; at the borders of 
woods near the Umlazi River, K)-a7iss 7, partly ; between the Umzimkulu and 
Umkomanzi liivers, Drege. 
Dravv-n from Jenkinson's 6 (Wood 7303). 
Jenkinson says of this grass : " Used for cattle, seeds much liked by birds- 
and poultry." 
Fig: 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume : 3, valve ; 4, pale ; 5, })istil, stameus and lodicules. 
All eiiUnujcd . 
