The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey.

  • William H. Harvey
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cuneate or lanceolate, membranous scale; valves hyaline, covering the flower. Perianth 0. Stamens 2-3. Ovary flat- tened ; style 2-fid, equal at base. Achene ohovate-clavate, bi- convex, shortly stipitate, punctulate, enclosed in the valves of the larger palea.—Kunth, l.c. p. 269. P. Capensis, our only species, was discovered by Drege on the Katberg and in Caffraria. Its culms are slender, tufted, leafy at base, and bear a head of 1-3 spikelets, subtended by 2 long involucral bracts. The whole plant is very pale. Tribe 4. EiiYNCiiosPOREiE. (G-en. 14-26.) 14. TRIANOPTILES, Penzl. Spikelets 2-flowcrcd, both bisexual. Grlumes distichous, keeled, boat-shaped, 3 lower empty. Periauth of 3, narrow- linear, 3-fld scales, villous-ciliato below; the lobules bristle- 8ha])ed, the medial longer. Stamens 3. Style very long, 2-fid at the apex, swollen and hair}'- at the base. Acliene obovate, flat towards the axis, convex and obtusely angled in front, minutely dotted, beaked, girt by the persistent enlarged peri- anth scales ; the beak continuous, hairy at tip.—Endl. Oen. 113; Kunth, l.c, p. 287 {Ecklonia). T. Capensis {Eoklonia Capensis, Stoud.), found on Table Mountain, has simple, leafy culms, and axillary or terminal, subgeminate, many-spikelotcd peduncles. Spikelets tufted, lanceolate, subcompressed, brownish-straw- coloured. 15. RHYNCHOSPOIIA, Vahl. Spikelets 1-9-flowered, either all the flowers bisexual or the lower bisexual or female, the rest male. Grlumes imbricate on all sides (or imperfectly distichous), 1-nerved, often mucro- natc-awued, the lower smaller, empty. Perianth of 6 or more or fewer bristles, sometimes minute or wanting. Stamens 3 (2-1). Stylo more or less deeply 2-fid, thickened at base. Achenes biconvex, beaked with the persistent, conical or subu- late, hardened style-base.—Kunth, 1. c. p. 287. Culms leafy. Spikelets capitate, corymbose or pauicled, brown or straw- colour.—Few Cape species. 16. CLADIUM, E. Br. Spikelets 2-1-flowered, the flowers bisexual, the lower rarely male. Glumes imbricate on all sides, lower empty. Perianth 0. Style 3-fid (rarely 2-fid), conical-bulbous at base, conti- nuous. Achene bony, completely covered over by‘the much enlarged, cap-like, adherent base of style.—Kunth, l.c. p. 303. C. Mariscus, an almost cosmopolitan species, is found in Uitenliagc. Culms tall, leafy, ending in a long thyrsus of densely, much-branched pa- nicles of small, clustered, chestnut-brown spikelets.