483 
Alloteropsis.} clvii. gramine^i (Stapf). 
Perennial or annual ; leaf- blades flat or more or less convolute ; 
ligules membranous, ciliate or ciliolate, short or reduced to a mere 
rim ; racemes sessile or peduncled, often more or less compound 
towards the base, digitate or subdigitate on a more or less elongated 
common axis. 
Species about 5, in the tropics and the warm temperate zone of the Old World. 
As Hitchcock ( Gontrib . U.8. Nat. Herb. xii. 210) has pointed out, Presl’s 
description and analyses of Alloteropsis are based on a composition of a Panicoid 
and an Andropogonoid grass, whilst the original in Presl’s herbarium is un- 
doubtedly the plant described here as A. semialata, and so is also the habit 
figure (1) in Presl’s plate. The genus is therefore accepted here with Hitchcock’s 
emendation. 
Another member of this genus, A. cimicina, was included by Palisot de Beau- 
vois (Agrost. 12) in his genus Axonopus under its earliest synonym Milium 
cimicinum and as “ A. cimicinus ? ” on p. 154, and this led J. 1). Hooker (FI. 
Brit. Ind. vii. 64) to use the name Axonopus in preference to Alloteropsis, a view 
which was adopted by myself in FI, Gap. vii. 418. From P. Beauvois’ diagnosis, 
however, and from the fact that he quotes in the first place “ Milium com- 
.pressum ” as example for Axonopus, there can be no doubt that he had primarily 
Milium compressum in view when establishing his genus Axonopus, and it is in 
that sense that the genus is understood in this work (see below). A. cimicina 
also forms the basis of another genus, Goridocliloa, Nees in Edinb. New Phil. 
Journ. xv. 381. A. Chase (in Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, xxiv. 157) main- 
tains this genus as distinct from Alloteropsis, and I followed her when drawing up 
the key of the genera of Tropical African grasses (p. 13) ; but I have since come . 
to the conclusion that the species referable to these two groups are so similar in 
the peculiar structure of their spikelets that they are better merged into one 
genus for which Alloteropsis has priority over Goridocliloa. 
Perennial ; leaf- blades narrow all along or at least towards 
the base and there passing gradually into the sheath ; 
spikelets only moderately compressed from the back, 
their upper glume and lower valve chartaceous, the 
latter with the exception of a triangular transparent 
area at the base. 
Spikelets mostly between 2\ and 4 lin. long ; awn up to 
14 lin. long ... ... ... ... ... ... 1. A. semialata, 
Spikelets l^lin. long, with a short mucro from the fertile 
floret ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2. A. angusta. 
Annual ; leaf- blades lanceolate, cordate or rounded at the 
base ; spikelets flat, conspicuously compressed from the 
back ; their upper glume and lower valve membranous, 
the latter thin throughout or with a hyaline trans- 
parent zone at the base. 
Spikelets lanceolate -oblong, acuminate, l|-2 lin. by £ lin., 
awn 1^-2^ lin. long ... ... ... ... ... 3. A, paniculata. 
Spikelets ovate to elliptic, acute, 1^- lin. by -J-f lin., awn 1 
rarely over 1 lin. long 4. A. cimicina .« L.p '■> i \ 
1. A. semialata, Hitchcock in Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. xii. 210. 
Perennial, compactly csespitose on a short rhizome with a thick basal 
coat of silky-tomentose sheath-bases or their remains ; innovations 
intravaginal. Culms erect, simple, 1 to over 3 ft. high, 2-3-noded 
with the uppermost internode long-exserted, terete, glabrous or 
sometimes more or less hairy. Leaf-sheaths tight, strongly striate, 
