294 



Jour., Bom. Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXXII, No. 2. [Oct. 20, 1927, 



the name of 5. Roxburghii in Fl. Trop. Afr., ix, 126. The description will be 

 given in the following appendix to the genus Sorghum. 



1. S. verticilliflorum. 



B. 



L 



Species of Sorghum described from Africa by Stapf which also occur in India 

 All the information is taken from Stapf, mostly almost verbatim. 

 A. Mature sessile spikelets deciduous with the 

 adjoining joint of the rhachis and its 

 pedicelled companion : spontaneous grasses 

 Matiire sessile spikelets persistent : cultivated 

 grasses 



Mature glumes whollycoriaceousorthe lower 

 with a herbaceous triangular tip, its nerves 

 not visible on the back except at the tip, 

 particularly when this is herbaceous 

 Mature panicles more or less loose, usually 

 with arched or drooping branches, never 

 quite compact 

 (a) Sessile spikelets ovate or elliptic to 

 lanceolate-oblong 

 * Mature spikelets pale straw-colour, 

 permanently more or less hairy ; the 

 grain embraced below by the tightly 

 appressed glumes 



1. 



2, 



II. 



* * Mature spikelets bright tawny early 

 glabrescent ; the grain almost wholly 2. 

 exposed between the involute glumes... 

 (b) Sessile spikelets broadly obovate in 



outline ... 3. 



Mature panicles very dense to compact, 

 rarely more or less loosened owing to the 

 reduction of the primary axis and the 

 consequent subdigitate arrangement of 

 the branches 

 Mature glumes thinly crustaceous to papery, 



the tips brittle and breakng irregularly. 



Back of spikelets longitudinally striate. 



Sessile spikelets 6 - 3-85 mm. long. Pedi- 

 celled spikelets 7*6-10 mm. long ... 5. 



Sessile spikelets 5—6*3 mm. long. 

 Pedicelled spikelets up to 6 3 mm. long 6. 



5"- Roxburghii, var. 

 semiclausum. 



S. Roxburghii, var. 

 Mans. 



S. bicolor, var. 

 obovatum. 



4. 5". Durra. 



S. papyrascens. 



S. cernuum. 



* 1. Sorghum verticilliflorum, Stapf in Fl. Trop. Afr. ix, 116.— 5. halepense, Nees 

 Fl. Afr. Austr. 88, non Pers.—Andropogon verticil liflorus, Steud. Syn. PI. Glum, 

 i, 393. — A. Sorghum, subsp. halepensis , var. effusus, Hack. inMonogr. Androp. 

 503 (Partim)--A. Sorghum verticilliflorus, Piper in Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash, 

 xxviii, 37— A. halepensis, var. effusus, Stapf in Dyer, Fl. Cap. vii, 346 (partim). 



Description : An annual. Culms l"2-2*4 m. high, sometimes slightly pruinose 

 below the nodes- Leaf-sheaths delicately silky-pubescent at the nodes ; ligules 

 up to over 2 mm. long, scarious, hairy on the back ; blades linear from a 

 broad rounded and often clasping base, long attenuated upwards, up to 45 cm. 

 long, rarely over 25 mm. wide, green, sometimes slightly glaucous or flushed 

 with purple, hairy just behind the ligule, otherwise glabrous. Panicle oblong to 

 ovoid-oblong, often rather contracted and more or less nodding at first, then 

 spreading out and more erect, up to 37 cm. long and ultimately 15-22 cm. 

 wide ; branches slender, flexuous, whorled, longest up to 22 cm. long and 

 undivided to up to 5, rarely 7\S cm. from the base, distantly branched, slightly 

 and shortly hairy to villous at the base, like the branchlets more or less rough, 

 at least upwards. Racemes fragile, up to 5-, but mostly 2- or 3-noded, rarely 

 over 18 mm- long ; joints slender, 3*3-4*2 mm. long, shortly ciliate, cilia dirty 

 white or pale fulvous, often wilh a tinge of purple ; pedicels similar, slightly 

 shorter, their tips subdiscoid- Sessile spikelet ovate to ovate-lanceolate, shortly 

 acuminate to acute, 37-4*5 mm. by 15-2"2 mm., straw-coloured, greenish 

 towards the tips (at least when young), sometimes tinged with purple, ultimately 



[14] 



