[Crown Copyright Reserved.] 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
No. 5] (1923. 
D. K. HueuHes. 
In October 1921 some seeds were received at Kew from 
Mr. J. Gossweiler, Director of the Botanic Gardens, Angola. 
These were sown and by the summer of the next year a ‘profusely 
branching grass, 3-6 ft. high, was reared. The extremely slender 
branches, rambling in all directions, gave it a delicate and pleasing 
appearance. It was remarkable from the first in that the leaf 
blades were conspicuously sagittate and inserted on slender 
petioles which stood out at an angle and held them well away 
from the leaf sheaths. These petioles were hardly noticeable on 
the young shoots but developed after the leaves were unroll 
becoming 1—2 ins. long or even longer on the older portions. At 
this stage an attempt was made to name it, but without success, 
though in foliage it was somewhat similar to Setaria sagittifolia 
Walp. When the flowers appeared they were found to be as 
remarkable as the leaves. The panicoid structure with the reduc- 
tion of the branchlets into bristles suggested Setaria, but unlike 
that genus the bristles were slightly flattened and became more 
or less fused at the base into clusters or fascicles. By means of 
a cushion of parenchymatous cells which developed at the base, 
each cluster became reflexed and finally disarticulated from the 
main axis. This fusion of bristles and final disarticulation of the 
clusters is strongly suggestive of Cenchrus or the Australian 
genus Plagiosetum, but unlike Cenchrus the clusters or burrs are 
stalked, the bristles are branched above the base and the fusion 
is irregular. In Plagiosetum the bristles are finer and do not 
become reflexed as in Streptolophus, nor do the clusters, which 
are much simpler in structure, develop into burrs. Thus Strepto- 
hus seems intermediate betweeen Cenchrus and Plagiosetum 
and, standing as a separate genus, provides a link between the 
two, at the same time keeping our former conception of each 
intact. 
x (78)19907 Wt396—P 32 1000 5/23 A 
