ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 



BULLETIN 



OP 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 



No. 6.] 



[1907. 



XXXV.-THE GRASSES OF BRITISH SOMALILAND 



Otto Stapp. 



Wh 



bomahland was published, not a single species of grasses was 

 known from that country, and indeed very few from the 

 remainder of the Somali Peninsula. But although the members 

 of the James Expedition, from whose collections that list was 

 drawn up, did not bring home any grasses, there are passages in 

 h . L. James s book « The Unknown Horn of Africa " which refer 

 to the occurrence of grass lands in the interior. To throw light on 

 their character and constitution was reserved for the Italian expedi- 

 iSSn ° f i ^obecchi-Bricchetti and Prince Ruspoli, who between 

 18 JU and 1893 did so much towards lifting the veil from the 

 interior of the peninsula. 



e The S™ sses collected by Robecchi-Bricchetti on his journey 



5SI? + mi a t0 Berbera were published by Dr. E. Chiovenda in 

 l»yo.T The majority (14 species) of them are from British 

 territory and were gathered in the western Haud and the Habr 

 Awal country in the last two weeks of August, 1891. In the 

 same year, Prof. Keller, of Ziirich, who accompanied Prince 

 Ruspoli on his first expedition, botanised in that region ; but only 

 one or two grasses,:}: new species described from his collections, 

 can be claimed for British Somaliland. 



our knowledge of Somali srrasses 



by Dr. Riva, Prince Ruspoli's naturalist on his second expedition. 



* Oliver in F. L. James, " The Unknown Horn of Africa " C1888), pp. 318-323, 

 tt. 1-4. 



t E- Chiovenda, Graminaceae dell' Harar e dei Somali racallte dell I. L. Robecchi- 



Bncchetti in Annuario del R. Istituto Botanico di Roma, vi. (18^)- PP. 161-176, 

 tt. ix.-xxi. 



X Hackel in Memoirs de l'Herbier Boissier, No. 20 (1900), pp. 6-8. 

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