242 XXVIII. GRAMiNE.E. [Lragrostis 



MossAMEDES. — Saudv thickets on the river Bero ; August 1859. 

 No. 2606. 



19. E. rotifer Rendle sp. nov. 



An annual, 3 to 5 ft. high, with strong erect generally un- 

 branched culms growing in tufts, and enveloped at the base by 

 the long loose membranous sheaths which are })u1iescent at the 

 very base ; internodes 5, stout, tei'ete, glabrous, with an irregular 

 broken glandular ring below the swollen brown nodes ; mouth of 

 sheath pilose, ligule a short dense row of hairs ; leaves long, 

 narrow linear, tapering to a setiform apex, scabrid, flattened, 

 plicate or subconvolute when dry ; panicle large, pyramidal, 

 interrupted, the two lower nodes separated by a long internode 

 and bearing a dense whorl of long very slender branches which 

 branch again from the base upwards, succeeding internodes 

 gradually shorter, and the branches at the nodes rapidly diminish- 

 ing in number and importance ; spikelets subcompressed, narrow- 

 linear, glabrous, terminal or on pedicels half or less than half 

 their length, flowers 8 to 15, somewhat laxly arranged on the 

 very slender rhachis ; barren glumes unequal, light-coloured, 

 membranous, inconspicuously 1 -nerved, the lower smaller, bluntly 

 lanceolate, reaching just above the middle of the lowest fertile 

 glume, caducous, the upper ovate, blunt ; fertile glumes a dull 

 brownish-green with a membranous brownish apex, broadly ovate 

 when opened with a median and 2 incomplete faintly curved 

 lateral nerves, apex blunt or rounded, back rounded ; pale scarcely 

 shorter, keels minutely scabridulous in the upper part ; anthers 

 purplish ; grain compressed, ellipsoidal, reddish-brown, hilum 

 deeper-coloured. 



Basal and lower sheaths to 5 in. long, exceeding the inter- 

 nodes, above the second internode about 4 in. long and shorter 

 than the internode ; ligule i line long; leaves 9 to 18 in. long, 

 1^ to scarcely 2 lines broad at the base. Panicle when fully 

 developed 1 ft. long and 8 in. in greatest diameter, internodes 

 between the two lowest fertile nodes, 3^ in. long, rhachis and 

 branches glabrous. Spikelets 3 to 4 lines long, by i line broad. 

 Lower barren gl. ^ line, the upper -i to f line ; fertile gl. | to 

 scarcely f line long ; anthers (3) barely ^ line ; grain ~ line long. 



Diffei-s from the large variety of E. agrostoidea in its long 

 tapering leaves, laxer spikelet and densely whorled interrupted 

 panicle. 



Bakra do Bengo. — An annual, 3 to 5 ft. high, with erect culms 

 and spreading panicles. By ponds between Quicuxe and Cacuaco ; 

 June 1858. No. 7284. Nos. 7341, 7341i (no notes). 



20. E. huillensis Rendle sp. nov. 



Perennial with a tough slender densely rooting rhizome, culms 

 tall, erect, unbranched, with 4 internodes; nodes glabrous not 

 prominent ; leaf -sheaths loose, glabrous, save for a few hairs at 

 the mouth, except the lowest generally half or less than half the 

 length of the internode ; ligule a very short and dense row of hairs. 



