182 XXVIII, GRAMINEA, [Panicum 
a crowded base, geniculate at the lower nodes; leaves linear with 
a long tapering finely-pointed apex ; panicle large, diffuse, much- 
branched, branches slender to capillary, spikelets purple, distant, 
long-stalked, with divergent acute glumes ; glume I. ovate, midrib 
strong, subearinate and produced into a short stiff awn; gl. IT. 
ovate, acuminate, slightly exceeding the other two; gl. IIT. broadly 
ovate, blunt, with a pale and a male flower; fertile gl. shorter 
than the barren, oval-oblong in outline in its natural position, 
coriaceous, whitish, polished. 
The long glabrous spreading shoots (to 23 ft.) are crowded at 
the base apparently on a rhizome (broken off short in the specimen) ; 
short stiff roots spring from their bases. Internodes long, slender, 
rounded, smooth; nodes glabrous; sheaths 4+ to 2 length of 
internodes, striate, appressed, with a minutely ciliate margin ; in 
the lower part of the shoots loose and membranous after withering 
of blade ; ligule short, membranous, fimbriate ; blades 6 to 10 in. 
long by 2 lines or less in breadth, rather stiff, midrib very pro- 
minent on the lower face, margins becoming revolute. Panicle 
ovate, 8 in. long, branches widely spreading, pedicels 2 to 4 times 
the length of the spikelet. Glume I. 11 to 14 line long, incom- 
pletely 5-nerved, midrib scabridulous on the back like the awn, 
lateral nerves weak, successively shorter ; gl. II. convex, 14 to 134 
line, shortly acuminate, with 3 strong nerves converging at the 
apex and a pair of weak incomplete outer nerves ; gl. IIT. convex, 
1 to 14 line, broader than the second, 5-nerved, 2 outer nerves 
weak and ending below the apex; pale strongly ribbed, broadly 
ovate, with broad infolded margins, 1 line long, anthers dark- 
coloured. Fertile gl. ? line long, very broadly oval when the 
strongly incurved edges are opened out, inconspicuously 5-nerved ; 
pale subequal. 
GoLungo ALTO.—A monocarpic grass, spikelets obscurely violet, 
distant, Rather rare in sunny sandy places between Cambondo and 
Trombete ; 20 June 1855. No. 2959. 
Is near P. trypheron Schult., but distinguished by its delicate 
diffuse panicle, with smaller spikelets. From the description 
given by Steudel is apparently allied to his P. wnabaptistumn 
(4c., p. 75), collected by Leprieur in Senegal. 
Evidently a widely diffused species in tropical Africa, as the 
following specimens are referable to it. Hildebrandt No. 1186 
and No, 1087, Zanzibar; Holst No. 3120, Usambara; and 
one from Christian Smith, Congo. 
40. P. madagascariense Spreng. Syst. i. p. 317 (1825); Steud., 
Lc., p. 85; Durand & Schinz, l.c., p. 753. 
P. wiroides Fliigge ex Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. ed. i. ii., p. 175 
(1829). 
MossaMEDES.—A grass, apparently sometimes annual, sometimes 
perennial, with leaves and stems glaucous in the living state. Common 
on the sandy banks of the river Bero in the coast region ; July and 
