Themeda.] 
CLVII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
417 
of the upper and uppermost often 4-5, very short — hence their 
monostachya crowded into obovoid heads — dorsally flattened, 
scantily ciliate or bearded towards the tips ; the degree of division 
of the panicle very variable, heads therefore from few to many, if 
many scattered in the lower, approximate in the upper part of the 
panicle and its main branches ; lower subtending leaves like the 
preceding leaves ; upper with a green or purple-tinged spathaceous 
sheath passing imperceptibly into a linear acute blade, tapering up- 
wards, including it from 6 to under 2 in. long, glabrous or more or 
less hairy, uppermost quite spatheoloid. Spatheoles compressed 
cymbiform, lanceolate, long-acuminate, glabrous or more or less 
hairy, often suffused with purple or violet, up to 2 in. long, her- 
baceous except at the scarious margins and tips, the inner of large 
heads shorter (to less than 1 in.) and more scarious ; peduncles 
rarely up to 1 lin. long. Racemes normally with a single fertile 
spikelet. Fertile spikelet including the callus 2J-3 lin. long, rarely 
slightly shorter, awned ; callus pungent, to over 1 lin. long, densely 
rufously bearded. Lower glume rigidly and minutely puberulous 
towards the obtuse tips, otherwise glabrous and shining, whitish 
when in flower, at length dark chestnut -brown, 7-9-nerved, nerves 
more or less anastomosing below the nerveless tip ; upper glabrous, 
with a few transverse nerves upwards. Lower floret : valve deli- 
cate, lanceolate, acute, about 2 lin. long. Upper floret ^ : awn 
usually between 1J and 2-| in. long (rarely shorter in the tropical 
African specimens), kneed at or near the middle, column dark brown, 
hirtellous, bristle paler. Anthers up to over 1 lin. long. Involucral 
spikelets inserted almost at the same level, oblong-lanceolate to linear- 
oblong, 4-6 lin. long, rarely shorter or longer, persistent ; glumes equal 
or subequal ; lower acute or acuminate with a fine point, produced 
at the base into a callous swelling, closely nerved, green to glaucous, 
often tinged with purple, at length of a rich straw-colour or russet, 
quite glabrous or more or less hairy, particularly in the upper pari , 
rarely all over, hairs fine, spreading, 1-14 lin. long, springing from 
a small pale or dark (sometimes black) tubercle, rarely hairs and 
tubercles coarser, one of the keels usually with a very narrow scarious 
wing or margin ; upper 3-nerved ; valve of lower floret linear- 
lanceolate, acute, up to 4 lin. long, 1 -nerved, of upper floret very 
narrow, more or less reduced, sometimes very small or suppressed ; 
anthers 2 lin. long. Pedicelled spikelets linear- to subulate-lanceolate 
with a fine point, always quite glabrous, usually — Schweinf. 
in Bull. Herb. Boiss. ii. Append, ii. 16, 95 : K. Schum. in Engl. 
Pfl. Ost-Afr. A. 51 ; Rendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 161 ; 
Pilg. in Engl. Pflanzenw. Afr. ii. 151, fig. 114, and in Mildbr. Wiss. 
Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr.-Afr. Exped. ii. 45 ; Eyles in Trans. Roy. 
Soc. S. Afr. v. 298. T. Forskalii, Hack, in DC. Monogr. Phan. vi. 
659 (partly) ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 731 (inch most 
varieties) ; K. Sehum. l.c. A. 23, 56, 79 ; Engl. Hochgebirgsfl. 
FL. FLOP. AFK. VOL. IX. PT. 3. 2 E 
