Aristida] xxviii. gramixe^. 205 



MossAMEDES. — Annual, denselyand widely c;esp:tose, with a Bromoid 

 habit, culms very lax, decumbent, awns generally purplish. On the 

 sterile heights around the presidium where Porto de Pinda stands ; 

 30 August 1869. No. 2612. 



8. A. papposa Trin. & Rupr., I.e., p. 173 ; Steud., Lc. ; Duraiid 

 & Schinz, I.e., p. 805. 



Loan DA.— The appearance of this grass when moved by the wind is 

 that of undulating liquid silver. Plentiful on grassy hills, in rather 

 dry coarse sandy soil, near Quicuxe and MutoUo, tinging wide areas 

 with a shining silver colour (also found near Maianga do Povo) : May 

 1854. No. 7456. Nos. 7366, 7356/', <■, ^. 



9. A. prodigiosa Wehv. in Trans. Linn. See. xxvii, p. 80, t. 25 

 (1869) ; Durand & Schinz, I.e., p. 807. 



M(>ss.\MKi)ES. — 1 to 3 ft. high, perennial by a fleshy rhizome, some- 

 times annual, root-fibres numerous, white, villous, succulent, radical 

 leaves slightly ci«spitose, glaucous, filiform, striate, rigidulous, variously 

 falcate, culms unbranched, ascending, glaucous, tinged with dark- 

 purple at the nodes, awns elongated, plumose. Very plentiful in 

 coarse sandy places by the sea to five to six miles from the ocean from 

 Giraul as far as Bahia dos Tigres below Cabo Negro ; in fl. and fr. 

 almost the whole year. Affords excellent fodder for antelopes, hares, 

 and cattle. Typical form with hirsute glumes. Praia da Amelia ; 

 June 1859. No. 2000('. Form with glabrous glumes. Plentiful in 

 sandy valleys between Cazimba and Mossamedes, 4 Sept. ; between 

 Mossamedes and Praia da Amelia, July ; in the sandy, now almost dry, 

 bed of the river Caroca (commonly called Eroque), Cabo Negro^ 

 beginning of Sept. 1859. No. 2000/^. Coll. Caki". 1107 (no notes). 



Snbtribe II. Agrostere. 



33. CALAMAGROSTIS Adans. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 

 p. 1150. 



1. C. Welwitschii Rendle sp. nov. 



Perennial (?), culms caBspitose, erect, or base ascendini;', un- 

 branched, elongated canline internodes 4, glabrous, subcompressed, 

 the lowest shorter than the loose membranous scabrous sheath, 

 the upper exceeding their sheaths; nodes glabrous, well-marked ; 

 ligule large, scarious, truncate ; blade flat, linear-tapering, acute, 

 ascending, scabridulous-striate, glabrous ; panicle elongated, 

 narrow, lax, rhachis and branches scabridulous, branches verticillate 

 or fascicled, flexuosely ascending to suberect, filiform, the lower 

 pai't bare, the upper bearing several shorter densely flowered 

 branchlets ; spikelets on short pedicels ; barren glumes lanceolate, 

 acute, 1-nerved, with scabridulous keel, the lower slightly the 

 longer; fertile gl. a little less than the upper barren gl., ovate, 

 truncate, 4-nerved, glabrous, unawned, enveloped by a tuft of 

 hairs almost equal to it in length borne by the callus, enclosing a 

 similar but narrower pale ; anthers 3, pale brown, apiculate. 



Plants 2 ft. or a little more in height; elongated internodes 

 increasing upwards 1^ to 5 in., reaching 1 line in width, witli 

 leaf -sheaths a little over 1 to o] in,; ligule 2 to 2.V lines; 

 blades 2^ to 4} in. long by 1 ?, line or less in width. Panicle 



