PHYLLORACHIS, A NEW GENUS OF GEAMINEiE. 355 



back, with nine very slender equal and equidistant nerves, all acute 

 or very acute ; no awns. '" 



The only s^Decies, P. sagittata, is a grass about two or three 

 feet high, with very much the habit of Ohjra i^aucifiora, Sw. 

 From the crown of the rootstock, which gives off many long 

 tough roots, arise several stiff, slender, strong, why, cylindrical, 

 smooth, solid, slightly branched stems, which are thickened and 

 slightly kneed at the lower nodes, and bear short brown acute 

 sheaths without a leaf-blade. The leaves are few, distant, the 

 lowest ones somewhat reduced in size ; in the fully developed 

 ones the sheaths are rather shorter than the blade, close, smooth 

 or roughish with a few very minute prickles, slightly ciliated at 

 the margin above ; ligule none ; the blade spreads at right 

 angles or is somewhat deflexed, and is very shortly stalked ; 

 it is two and a half to three inches long, ovate-lanceolate, 

 tapering to the acute apex, deej)ly sagittate at the base, the 

 auricles being about one -fourth of an inch long and subacute, 

 smooth but for an occasional minute prickle on the midrib beneath 

 and numerous forward-pointing ones on the margin ; usually it is 

 markedly conduplicate, being folded along the midrib, which is but 

 little more strongl}^ marked than the fom* slender i)arallel nerves 

 which run on either side after first bending down into the 

 auricles. 



As regards the affinities of the genus they are by no means 

 obvious. Gen. Munro is inclined to place it in ChloridecB, as 

 somewhat approaching Spartina in some respects, especially in 

 the style and large loose caryopsis, and it will for the j)resent 

 be well to leave it in that position. Yet the structure of the 

 fertile spikelet presents some resemblances to the Phalaridea, 

 whilst in habit the grass suggests an affinity with some genera of 

 the Olijrece. 



The precise locality where this singular grass was found by Dr. 

 Welwitsch was in sandy woods on the larger island of Calemba, in 

 the river Cuanza, in Pungo Andongo, and the date, March, 1857. 



Description of Tab. 205, representing Pliylloracliis sagittata, Trimen, 

 drawn from specimens in the British Museum collected in Angola by the 

 late Dr. Welwitscb. — 1. A plant nat. size. 2. Small portion of the dilated 

 rachis showing the scars left by the fallen compound spikelets, nat. size. 

 3. Back, and 4, front view of a compound spikelet, enlarged. 5. The flattened 

 secondary axis with the spikelets detached, enlarged. . 6. Glumes of the lowest 

 spikelet, the upper portion of the third one cut ofi", enlarged. 7. Flow^ering- 

 glume and palea of the same, nat. size. 8. Inner surface of grain, nat. size. 

 0. The same, enlarged. 10. Outer side of the same, enlarged. 11. A leaf 

 flattened out, nat. size. 



* I think the terminology employed for the parts of the grass-spikelet by 

 Mr. Bentham worthy of general adoption, being most in accordance with their 

 actual nature as now generally recognised by botanists. 



