Oct. 20, 192/.] Revision of the Flora of the Bombay Presidency 295 



often turning bright or blackish-red particularly below ; callus-beard less than 

 1 mm. long. Involucral glumes equal, coriaceous, slightly glossy below (more 

 so when ripening), thinner upwards, lower usually slightly bulging below and 

 somewhat depressed towards the tips, 11-13-nerved, with the nerves very obscure 

 near the tips or more or less marked, sharply 2-keeled and scabrid to spinulously 

 ciliolate in the upper half or third, more or less strigillose, often glabrescent, 

 rarely almost glabrous, hairs pale whitish or fulvors, loosely appres^ed, upper 

 sharply keeled towards the tips with the keel rough, 7-nerved, more or less hairy. 

 Floral glumes conspicuously ciliate, lower lanceolate, 5*3 mm. long, upper 

 ovate, shortly 2-lobed, 22 mm. long ; awn fine, 1*3-1'7 cm. long. Anthers 3*3 mm. 

 long. Grain obovate-oblong, 3*3 mm. by 02 mm., fuscous, paler below; 

 embryo-mark distinct, hardly exceeding the middle of the grain. Pedicelled 

 spikelet male or neuter, early deciduous, subulate-lanceolate to linear, acutely 

 acuminate, 63 mm. long, pale greenish, often tinged with red or purple ; lower 

 involucral glume 9-, upper 5-nerved. 



Distribution : Nileland, Mozambique District, Natal, the Comoros, Seychelles, 

 Madagascar, the Mascarenes. Introduced into India as Tabucki grass, also to 

 Australia, Polynesia, and the West Indies. 



* 2. Sorghum Roxburghii, Stapf in Fl. Trop. Afr. ix, 126. 



Description : Annual. Culms stout, tall, often slightly waxy, pruinose below 

 the nodes. Leaf-sheaths softly pubescent at the nodes ; ligules very short, 

 scarious, hairy from the back ; blades linear to linear-lanceolate from a broad 

 clasping base, long-attenuated upwards, up to over 45 cm. long and up to 37 mm. 

 wide, usually hairy to tomentose inside above the ligule and outside at the 

 junction with the sheath, otherwise glabrous. Panicle oblong to ovoid-oblong, 

 rarely subovate or elliptic in outline, erect, contracted and dense (rarely lax) 

 in flower, somewhat to much loosened when mature ; branches slender, flexuous, 

 whorled or semiverticillate, the longest undivided for up to 12-25 mm. (rarely 

 much more) from the base, more or less ciliate towards the base and often 

 villous at the junction with the nodes, otherwise like their divisions glabrous or 

 nearly so, finely scabrid upwards. Racemes tough, up to 4- (rarely 5-) noded, 

 8-12 mm. long ; joints slender, 2-3'3 mm. long, distinctly and often densely 

 ciliate, cilia white or purplish ; pedicels similar but more slender, of about the 

 same length or more often shorter with very slightly thickened tips. Sessile 

 spikelet ovate, acute, with a small fine point, sometimes flattened on the back 

 when young but soon convex, about 5*3 mm. by 2*7-3-3 mm., permanently pale 

 or dull straw-coloured to tawny, at length slightly glossy; callus-beard, white. 

 Involucral glumes equal, coriaceous, lower about 10-13-nerved, finely and often 

 obscurely 2-keeled towards the tips with the keels slightly scabrid, transversely 

 constricted at the base, more or less white-strigillose (to almost tomentose) 

 when young, at length more or less glabrescent on the back, upper 7-9-nerved, 

 finely keeled upwards, tip usually straight. Floral glumes distinctly ciliate, 

 cilia up to 1 mm. long, lower broad-oblong, as long as the glumes, upper 

 broad-ovate, 3*3-4 mm. long, middle nerve much thickened from the middle 

 upwards, running out into a short straight mucro, lobes adnate to it almost all 

 along. Anthers 2*7 mm. long. Grains elliptic or ovate-elliptic in outline, 

 3-8-4-8 mm- by 2-7-3'3 mm., dull white (in the African specimens). Pedicelled 

 spikelet usually neuter, linear or linear-lanceolate, up to 4'2mm. long, more 

 often much reduced and quite small, persistent ; lower involucral glume, if 

 well developed, up to 9-nerved, upper 5-nerved. 



Of this species Stapf describes two varieties which also occur in India. 



(a) Var. semiclausum, Stapf in Fl. Trop. Afr- ix, 127 '.-Holcus Sorghum minus 

 et Sisna., Wall- Cat. 8777 F. A—Andropogon Sorghum, subsp- salivus, var. 

 Roxburghii (?) and fulvus, Hack, in Monogr- Androp. 510 and 512-—A- Sorghum, 

 var. Vsorum (?)• Stapf in Dyer Fl. Cap. vii, 348, in nota ; Medley Wood, 

 Natal PL ii 5 t- 120, non Koern. neque Hack. 



Description : Panicles fairly dense, also when mature. Involucral glumes 

 less coriaceous towards the tips and more or less showing the nerves in that 

 portion, permanently more or less strigillose, their margins clasping the grain 

 so that only its top or upper half is exposed. 



Distribution : Nileland of tropical Africa, Mozambique District, Natal, 

 Madagascar, India. 



{b) Var. hians, Stapf 1. c 127— Holcus Sorghum nitidum, Wall. Cat. 8777D— 

 Andropogon Sorghum, var. hians, Stapf in Hook. f. F. B. L, vii, 184.— A- Sorghum, 



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