92 
the ground and copiously branching to the right and left with the 
branches short, stout, closely sheathed and shortly ascending 
(see note on cultivated specimens below). Leaf-sheaths closely 
imbricate, mostly 1-2-1-6 cm. long, very rarely longer, almost 
membranous, very pale, then turning brown, distinctly nerved, 
glabrous or sparingly and shortly hirsute; ligules reduced to a 
densely ciliate rim; blades spreading, linear, gradually passing 
into the sheath, tapering to a subobtuse point, 1-25-5 cm. by 
3-4 mm. (flattened out), tightly folded, then opening out, sub- 
succulent, more or less glaucous, glabrous or sparingly and shortly 
hirsute, rough on the margins and the subcarinate midrib towards 
the tip, otherwise smooth, midrib slender, prominent below, 
primary lateral nerves 2-3, more or less differentiated below 
only. Inflorescence reduced to a cluster of 4-2 (mostly 3, 
rarely 1) spikelets, subsessile and enclosed for the greater part 
in the uppermost leaf-sheath, the terminal spikelet shortly 
pedicelled, the others sessile, each spikelet supported by an 
involucre of delicate bristles; bristles of the terminal involucre 
up to 15, very unequally long, the longest and strongest about 
; the length of the spikelets, of the lateral involucres similar 
but much fewer and only on the outer side of the spikelet. 
Spikelets bisexual or functionally unisexual, slender, linear- 
lanceolate, 1-1-75 rarely 2 cm. long, glabrous, whitish below, 
-greenish upwards. Lower glume suppressed, upper ovate to 
ovate-rotundate, subobtuse, up to 2 mm. long, hyaline, obscurely 
few-nerved. Lower floret reduced to its valve, this lanceolate, 
long tapering, subacute, as long as the spikelet, thinly membra- 
nous, 11—9-nerved. Upper floret 3 and markedly protogynous or 
functionally with rudimentary stamens; valve very similar 
to that of the lower floret, but slightly shorter; valvule linear- 
lanceolate, long acuminate, very thin, 4-2-nerved. Lodicules 0. 
Stamens ¢ with very long, protruding filaments (up to over 
25 mm. long) and dangling anthers, 5-7 mm. long, of the 2 much 
reduced with linear-subulate filaments slightly exceeding the 
ovary and empty anthers, 3 mm. long which remain permanently 
enclosed in the floret. Ovary obversely pear-shaped, attenuated 
into the long-exserted filiform style which is up to 3 cm. long, 
simple or shortly 2-fid and finely plumose from below the 
middle upwards. Grain (almost mature) dorsally compressed 
oblong-elliptic in outline, over 2 mm. by 1 mm. long, brown; 
hilum punctiform, black (Figs. 1-11, p. 91). P. longistylum (2) 
Stapf ex Burtt-Davy in Agric. Journ. South Afr. II. (1915) 
47. P. 1. var. clandestina, Leeke, Untersuch. Abstamm. u. 
Heimat d. Negerhirse, 23 (1907); Chiov. in Annuar. Ist. 
Bot. Roma, viii. 319 (1908). P. inclusum. Pilger in Eng]. Bot. 
Jahrb. XLV. 209 (1910). Cynodon Dactylon, Schweinf. in Bull. 
Herb. Boiss. II. App. ii. 31 (1894), not Pers. 
stribution.—Eritrea, Ocule Cusai; by the Dégra stream 
near Saganeiti, Schweinfurth 1257 (barren)! Abyssinia; Samen; 
