PLATE 495. 
LOLIUM ML'LTIFLOIU'M. Luill. (Fl. Ciip.. Vol. VII.. |). 739). 
Xat. Order ( iruuiiuea'. 
Annual. — Culms fascicled, geniculate ascending or erect, 1 ^ to 3 feet long, 
glabrous, smooth or slightly rough in the upper part, 4-o-noded. internodes at length 
more or less exserted, simple or Ijranched below. 
Leaves glabrous ; sheaths striate, smooth, lower sometimes purplish ; ligule 
very short, truncate from an auricled base ; blades linear, long tapering to a very 
slender point, 4 to 8 inches, by 1 to 2^ lines, flat, somewhat rigid, scabrid on the 
upper side and along the margins ; spikes erect, to I foot long, of numerous (12 
to 30) spikelets ; axis rather slender, smooth except at the scabrid margins ; inter- 
nodes (except the lowest) distinctly shorter than the spikelets. 
Spikelets strongly compressed from the side, elliptic-oblong, 6 to 8 lines long, 
obliquely erect, 9 to 11 flowered, up])ermost floret long exserted from the glume. 
Glumes, upper narrow, oblong, subobtuse, somewhat rounded on the back, 
equalling the contiguous floret or nearlv so, strongly 7 -nerved. A'alves awned or 
muticous, oblong, 2^ to 3 lines long, subherbaceous-chartaceous, light green or tinged 
with purple above, 5-nerved, smooth ; awn (when present) straight, very fine, 2^ to 
4 lines long, close to the short hyaline minutely 2-toothed tip ; keels of pales green, 
crested, scabrid ; anthei's 1|- to 2 lines long ; grain linear-oblong, seniiterete. 1^ line 
long, deeply channelled in front, adhering to valve and pale. 
Habitcit : Natal. FcAeh, M. S. Evans, October, 190.") : (Tovernment Herbarium, 
10,772 ; also without precise localitv, mixed with BncJuiiiaiix Xo. ")0, in ( iovern- 
ment Herbarium, Xo. 10,773. 
Als(j in Ca])e Colonv. A native of Central Eui'o])e and the ^lediterranean 
countries. Introduced in Xatal and Cape Colony. 
Fig 1, A spikelet ; 2, upper glume : .3, valve : 4, pale : 5. pistil, stamens and lotllcniles. 
All eularffed. 
