PLATE 414. 
Eragrostis chloromelas, Steud. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. G02). 
Nat. Order Graminea?. 
Perennial, very densely tufted with closely packed innovation shoots. 
Culms erect or geniculate, slender, simple, very rarely branched above the 
base, ;5 to 1^ foot long, sub-compressed, glabrous, or very rarely scantily hairy, 
smooth, usually 2-noded, internodes exserted, uppermost very long ; lowei- sheaths 
crowded, very short, firm, adpressedly hairy to tomentose at the very base or quite 
glabrous, persistent, upper tight, glabrous or with few fine scattered hairs, long- 
bearded at the mouth ; ligule a fi'inge of short hairs. Blades very narrow, filiform- 
convolute, capillary above, Hexuous, 3 to 6 inches long, rarely longer, to 1 line 
broad when expanded, somewhat rigid, glaucous, glabrous or scantily liairy, 
scaberulous or scabrid on the upper face and all over towards tlie tips, otherwise 
smooth. 
Panicle open, ovoid or pyraiuidal, lax, 2 to 8 inches long, erect, rather rigid ; 
axis filiform, smooth ; lower branches in whorls of 5-3, or 2-nate, rarely all solitary, 
spreading, finely filiform, sti'aight or subflexuous, glabrous or sometimes with a few 
fine hairs at the axils, longest \h to 4 inches long, undivided for J to 1 inch from 
the base, then very loosely and at length divaricately branched, smooth or the 
ultimate divisions scaberulous ; pedicels capillary, the lateral 1 to 3 lines long. 
Spikelets scattered, linear, acute, 2 to 4 lines by J to \ line, loosely 5 to 
13-flowered, dark olive-grey to slate-grey ; rhachilla subpersistent, then disarticu- 
lating, very slender, flexuous, smooth, or almost so, joints up to f line long. 
Glumes unequal, deciduous, lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong in profile, thinly 
acute or subacute, membranous or hyaline, 1 -nerved, scaberulous on the nerve ; 
lower ^ to f line, upper \ to 1 line long. Valves obliquely oblong in profile, 
subacute to acute, | to |- line long, membranous, smooth, side-nerves fine ; pales 
equal to the valves, obtuse, keels fine, smooth or nearly so. Anthers about § line 
long ; grain oblong-ellipsoid, obtusely quadrangular, |- line long, brown ; embryo 
large. ' 
HabitSit : Natal. Near Ladysmith, Eelimann 7130, 7134; Umhlanga, 
Wood 6058 ; near Van Reenen's Pass, 5000 to GOOO feet alt.. Wood 7221. 
Drawn from Wood's 7221, Van Reenen, 14-12-1898. 
Fig- 1, L(>\ver glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, valve ; 4, pale : .3, pistil, stameus and lodicules. 
All eiilar(/(<(l. 
