413 
Meteropogon.] clvii. gramine^e (Stapf). 
Istit. Bot. Roma vii. 61, and viii. 25 and 284-285 ; Stapf in Dyer, FI. 
Cap. vii. 350 ; De Wild. & Durand, Reliq. Dewevr. 254 ; De Wild. 
Etudes FI. Bas- et Moyen-Congo, ii. 9 ; Wood, Natal PI. 1 . 121 , Th. 
& Hei. Durand, Syll. FI. Congol. 621 ; Pilg. in Engl. Pflanzenw. Afr. 
ii. 156, fig. 116 B, and in Mildbr. Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr.-Afr. 
Exped. ii. 43 ; Eyles in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. v. 295. A. secundus , 
Willd. ex Nees, Agrost. Bras. 364 ; not of Kunth. A. firmus, J. S. 
Presl in C. B. Presl, Rel. Haenk. i. 334. A. firmus, Kunth, Enum. 
i. 486. A. messanensis, Bivona ex Guss. FI. Sic. i. 164. A. besu- 
kiensis, Steud. in Zoll. Syst. Yerz. ii. 59. A. Bellardii, Bubani in 
Nuov. Giorn. Bot. v. 317. A. Hohenackeri, Hochst., and A. hispi- 
dissimus, Hochst. ex Hack, in DC. l.c. 587. 
Common throughout the whole of Tropical Africa, and the adjacent islands, 
ascending in Eritrea to over 8800 ft. As it is quite unmistakable, it is 
unnecessary to enumerate the very many specimens examined. A good 
fodder grass when young, but very troublesome to man and beast and even 
dangerous to the latter when mature on account of the sharply pointed calli 
of the fertile spikelets which penetrate the skin and the membranes of 
the mouth ; hence the name “ spear-grass.” Hackel (in DC . Monogr. Phan. 
vi. 586-588) distinguishes two varieties and 6 subvarieties according to the 
degree of hairiness or the reverse of the male spikelets and the degree of 
ramification of the culms ; but the inconstancy of these characters is so evident 
that it is not worth while to discriminate between the forms corresponding to 
them. 
The species extends all over Africa, the Mediterranean region, and the tropical 
and subtropical regions generally. 
2. H. melanocarpus, Benth. in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xix. 71. 
Annual, up to over 6 ft. high. Culms erect, stout, often with stilt- 
roots from the lowest nodes, terete, glabrous, smooth, simple and 
. 4-6-noded below the panicle or occasionally with 1 or 2 mixed 
branches from the intermediate nodes. Leaves green ; sheaths 
slightly compressed and more or less keeled to terete, tight or at 
length rather loose, glabrous, smooth, with impressed glands on the 
keel ; ligules short, scarious, rotundate, glabrous ; blades linear, 
moderately attenuated towards the base, long-tapering to a fine 
point, \ to over 1J ft. by 2-5 lin., folded with one margin indexed in 
bud, then more or less flat, suberect, somewhat stiff or flexuous, 
glabrous except at the frequently long-ciliate base, rough on both 
sides (particularly on the upper) and along the margins, midrib 
slender, becoming stouter towards the base, whitish above, primary 
lateral nerves 3-5 on each side, prominent, with numerous fine 
secondary nerves between them. I n florescence a spatheate panicle 
of very varying composition, containing few to very many racemes, 
in more robust plants up to over 1 ft. long and more or less inter- 
rupted, occasionally augmented by 1 or several mixed branches ; 
primary internodes few, the lowest up to over 8 in. long, the follow- 
ing rapidly decreasing ; lower tiers few-rayed, the following up to 
6-rayed, fastigiate, innermost ray sometimes compound and bearing 
