308 
in the Portuguese Congo, whilst Scott Elliott points out that 
it is common in the forests of Ruwenzori between 6000 an 
8000 ft. 
The area inhabited by M. minutiflora in continental Africa 
may be described as consisting of two sub-areas, one in the 
West extending from Central Angola through the Portuguese 
Congo to the Cameroons with outposts in Lagos and on the 
Ivory Coast, the other in the East comprising the grassland 
on the slopes of Ruwenzori and Kilimanjaro and parts of the 
intervening country. 
It was found in Ascension Island growing in great quantity 
feet 1500 and 2500 ft. in 1889 and again in 1895, probably 
the result of casual introduction. A similar origin may be 
attributed to its occurrence in Central Madagascar, where it 
has been collected repeatedly since 1880. 
In America the grass ranges at present, as far as we know, 
over the greater part of eastern Brazil (from Bahia and Goyaz 
to Rio Grande do Sul) and also occurs as a cultivated fodder 
grass in Colombia. 
The genus Melinis consists of about a dozen species, all, 
except MW. minutiflora, confined to tropical continental Africa. 
As to M. minutiflora, the question arises whether it is really 
indigenous in America or introduced. The problem was discussed 
many years ago by A. St. Hilaire, Martius and Gardner, who 
knew the grass in the field in Brazil. St. Hilaire and Gardner 
came to the conclusion that it was, at any rate in Minas Geraes 
and Goyaz, an intruder, whilst Martius considered it as native 
there. In the southern states it is either known to be cultivated 
(S. Paulo) or suspected as an alien (S. Catharina and Rio Grande 
do nth ngler more recently in his memoir on the affinity 
e American and African floras admitted’ it as indigenous 
in Brazil Its claim to being a genuine African grass has never 
been doubted, and its close affinity with most of the other species 
—all exclusively African—and the conditions of its occurrence 
in Africa afford sufficient proof. The problem has some bearing 
on the, facility with which the grass spreads and establishes 
itself in certain circumstances and therefore on the chances of 
its introduction into regions not yet cocupied by it or its cultiva- 
tion. - For this reason I may be permitted to quote from some 
of the authors mentioned above :— 
M. minutiflora was first collected over 100 years ago some- 
where in. the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro where it is common 
pg to-day. Subsequently in 1816, A. 8. Hilaire came across 
in the mining districts of Minas Geraes where it spread with 
oh rapidity. This is what he says in “ Apergu d’un voyage 
dans Vintérieur du Brazil,’ 1823, pp. 8 and 9 (reprint) :— 
“au bout de trés-peu de temps enfin les arbres et les arbrisseaux 
ont disparu, et le terrain se trouve entiérement ocoupé par une. 
graminée grisatre, velue et uniflore, qui souffre & peine quelques 
plantes communes au milieu de ses tiges serrées, et qu’on appele 
