FLORA OF ADEN . 
385 
Arabic name : — Elef (Schweinf.). 
Description : — Stems 6-12 inches high, from a hard stoloniferous 
rootstock, stiff, strict above the geniculate base ; leaves 1-2 inches long, 
divaricate, pungent, scabrid above ; ligule 0. 
Panicle spiciform, slender, cylindric, 2-3 inches by inch in 
diameter, Spikelets sessile, inch long, persistent on the branchlets, 
pale. Glumes hyaline, lower involucral glume minute, rounded, upper 
involucral glume 1 -nerved, lanceolate, acute ; floral glume ovate- 
lanceolate ; palea as long as the glumes. 
Grain obliquely oblong or orbicular-oblong. 
Locality : — Shaikh Othman (Defl.) . 
Distribution : — Tropical Africa, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, Socotra, 
Arabia, Deccan. 
3. Sporobolus robustus Kunth Rev. Gram. p. 425, t. 126 (1829-35) 
et Enum. PL I, 218, suppl. p. 168 ; Benth. in Hook. Niger FI. 564 
(1849) ; Schweinf. in Bull. Herb. Boiss. II, Append. 2, p. 28 ; Durand 
& Schinz Consp. PI. Afr. Y, 823; Rendle Cat. Afr. PI. Welwitsch, II, 
pt. I, 206. 
Yilfa robusta Steud. Syn. PL Glum. 154 (1854) ; Schweinf. Beitr. 
FL Aethiop. p. 303. 
Description: — A fine widely caespitose grass, 2-6 feet high, culms 
ascending, geniculate, branched, nodes purplish, the lower sending out 
roots ; sheaths usually slightly shorter than the internodes, thinly 
villous on the • margins, subcoriaceous ; ligule consisting of a narrow 
subciliate margin ; leaves almost 1 foot long, 3 lines broad, flat, canali- 
culate-compressed, attenuate-linear or convolute-acuminate, glabrous, 
hispid on the margins. 
Panicle almost one foot long, open, dense, consisting of racemes 
which bear flowers from the base ; spikelets lanceolate, linear ; glumes 
slightly hispid on the back, as long as the subequal valves. 
Locality : — Aden (Bird wood) . 
Distribution* : — N iger, Cape Verd Isles, Gaboon Coast, Abyssinia, 
Eritrea, Senegambia, Suakim. 
10. Eragrostis Beau?. 
Perennial or annual, of very varying habit ; blades narrow ; ligule 
reduced to & fringe of usually minute hairs. 
Panicles lax to effuse or contracted to spike-like, or transformed int o 
simple or compound spikes. Spikelets usually more or less olive-green 
or olive-grey, usually strongly laterally compressed, very rarely 
E 2 
