DiPLACHNE, Beauv. 
Spikelets shortly pedicelled or subsessile, somewhat distant or remote on the 
simple slender branches of a panicle ; rhachilla disarticulating above the glumes and 
between the valves, glabrous. Florets 2 to 10, perfect, or the uppermost reduced. 
Glumes unequal or subequal, membranous, 1 -nerved, keeled, persistent. Valves 
. oblong to linear-oblong, 2-toothed or minutely notched, rarely quite entire, muticous 
or mucronulate from the sinus, very rarely shortly awned from below the apex, 
membranous, 3-nerved, usually finely ciliate in the lower part of the nerve, or 
sometimes quite glabrous ; side nerves percurrent or almost (or sometimes very 
shortly) excurrent Pales 2-keeled, shorter than the valves. Lodicules 2, cuneate, 
fleshy, nerved. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, slender ; stigmas 
plumose, laterally exserted. Grain enclosed by the slightly altered valve and pale, 
oblong to obovoid-oblong, dorsally compressed, sometimes quite flat, rarely terete ; 
embryo equalling ^ to ^ the length of the grain ; hilum punctiform, basal. 
Mostly perennial, tufted, somewhat coarse grasses ; blades long, narrow, flat or 
involute ; ligules membranous, sometimes reduced to a rim. 
Panicles consisting of slender, usually long, simple, loosely s])ike-like and 
more or less distant branches. 
Spikelets light or olive-green, often tinged with purple and dark. 
Species about 12, mainly in the warm regions of the Old Woi'ld and in North 
America. 
PLATE No. 410. 
DiPLACHNE EUSCA, Beauv. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 591). 
Nat. Order Graminere. 
Perennial, glabrous. — Culms tufted, stout, genlculately ascending or ei'ect, 
often branched from the lower nodes, 3 to 5 feet long, terete, smooth, 3-4-noded, 
or many noded when branched, internodes enclosed except the uppermost or shortly 
exserted ; sheaths smooth, almost shining or the upper rough, the basal whitish, 
slightly compressed, bluntly keeled ; ligules hyaline, oblong, acute, up to 2j lines 
long ; blades very narrow, linear, tapering to a fine often subpungent point, 3 to 
6 inches, by 1 to 1^ line when expanded, folded or convolute or sometimes flat, 
rather rigid, rough on l)oth sides, rarely almost smooth below. 
Panicle erect, straight or slightly nodding, obovate-oblong to linear, con- 
tracted or open ; rhachis slender, angular, rough ; branches scattered or 2-3 close 
together, often more or less flexuous, the longest 3 to 5 inches, usually racemose ; 
pedicels shoi-t. 
Spikelets distant by half their length or more, narrow, oblong, 3 to 5 lines 
long, 5 to 10-flowered, usually dark olive-grey, rarely light or whitish. 
Glumes lanceolate to oblong, obtuse or acute, often obscurely mucronate, the 
lower about 1 line long, the upjoer 1|- to 2 lines ; valves oblong, tips broad, entire 
or minutely emarginate, and with a tooth on one or both sides, middle and side- 
nerves excurrent into a short or obscure mucro, or only the former, side-nerves 
silky ciliate below ; callus hardly any, pales minutely 2-toothed, flaps hairy along 
the keels ; anthers \ line long ; grain oblong, dorsally compressed, up to 1 line 
long ; embryo almost ^ the length of the grain. 
Habitat : Natal. Clairmont, near Durban, 50 feet alt., Wood G045. 
Drawn from Wood's specimen, the only one in the Herbarium. 
Natal is not credited with this species in the Flora Capensis. 
Fig- 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; .3, valve ; 4, pale ; 5, pi.stil, stamens and lodicules. 
All eiilar(jc(l. 
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