FLORA OF ADEN . 
379 
Chaetaria nana Nees ex Steud. Nom. ed. 2, I, 340. 
Chaetaria mauritiana Nees FI. Afr. Anstr. ] 88. 
Description : — Annual or occasionally perennial with an oblique 
rhizome, glabrous ; culms tufted, geniculately ascending, slender, from a 
few inches to 2 feet long, usually branched from one or several of the 
lower nodes, smooth, upper internodes long exserted ; sheaths tight, 
rather firm, smooth ; ligule a line of short hairs ; blades very narrow, 
linear, tapering to a very fine point, 1-9 inches long, up to one line broad, 
convolute, rarely flat, smooth below, scabrid above and on the margins. 
Panicle linear, spike-like, usually interrupted or oblong and more or 
less lax, rigid or flaccid ; branches single or 2-nate unequal, branched 
from the base or simple to the middle, erect or nodding or flexuous, 
filiform, scabrid, lateral pedicels short ; spikelets 3-5 lines long, often 
purplish ; glumes linear to linear-lanceolate, acute or subobtuse, 1 -nerved, 
the lower 2-3J lines, the upper S-4J lines long, sometimes mucronate ; 
valve linear, laterally compressed, as long as the upper glume or slightly 
longer, rarely shorter, scabrid along the keel and the outer nerve, 
otherwise smooth or scabrid, particularly below the straight tip ; callus \ 
line long ; awns 6-9 lines long, rarely shorter (down to 4 lines) or 
longer (up to 1 inch) , diverging, continuous with the valve, the lateral 
somewhat shorter ; palea obtuse, less than | line long ; lodicules similar to 
the palea, 3-5-nerved, J-J line long ; anthers J line long. Grain almost 
as long as the valve. 
JFruits January and March (Schweinf.). 
Locality : — Above the coal-depots of the Messag. Marit. (Schweinf.) ; 
plain of Maala (Defl.) ; slope of Shum Shum Range at about 650 feet 
(Busse) ; rarissime (Hooker, Thomson) . 
Distribution : — Common in most dry and hot countries. 
2. Aristida pumila Dene. Ann. Sc. Nat. (1835) p. 85; Steud. Syn. 
PI. Gl. 138 ; Boiss. FI. Or. V, 49] ; K. Krause in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 
XXXV, 23. 
Aristida Adscensionis var. pumila Coss. in Coss. & Durieu Expl. Sc. 
Alger. II, 84 ; Batt. et Trab. FI. d*Alg. p. 56. 
Description : — Annual, l|-4 inches high ; rootlets fibrous, pilose ; 
culms several, filiform, striate, deflexed, glabrous, the nodes fuscous. 
Leaves setaceous, involute, acute, pale green, glaucescent, subarcuate ; 
sheath split, striate, membranous on the margin ; ligule ciliate. 
Panicles subcontracted, subequal in length to the culms ; spikelets 
1 -flowered, peduncled, scabrous. Lower glume linear, mucronate, aristate, 
upper one twice as long, linear, acute, glabrous. Flower shortly 
pedicelled ; pedicel pilose. Lower palea linear, elongate, involute, 
subcarinate ; the keel 3 -nerved, the nerves passing into 3 filiform, 
