Chloachne.] 
CLVII. GRAMINE.ZE (Stapf). 
489 
57. CHLOACHNE, Stapf in Hook. Ic. PI. t. 3072. 
Spikelets lanceolate, laterally compressed, somewhat turgid, 
falling entire from the pedicels, 2-nate, rarely 3-nate, secund and 
abaxial on the triquetrous slender rhachis of racemosely arranged 
spiciform racemes ; lower floret barren or male, reduced to the 
valve and a usually more or less rudimentary valvule ; upper floret 
shorter than the lower, Glumes herbaceous-membranous, with 
a laterally much compressed herbaceous acute to very acute tip, 
hirsute, 5-nerved, the lower slightly shorter than the upper. Lower 
floret : valve very similar to the glumes, but longer and 7-nerved ; 
valvule narrow, usually more or less reduced. Upper floret embraced 
and— except during flowering when it is laterally exposed — hidden 
by the valve of the lower floret, boat-shaped, acute to very acute 
and acuminate, thinly chartaceous, very smooth and shining, 
obscurely 5-nerved ; valvule similar to the valve, clasped by its 
narrowly indexed straight margins all along, 2-nerved. Lodicules 
2, obliquely cuneate, crenulate. Stamens 3. Styles connate at 
the base, capillary ; stigmata exserted from near the tip of the floret, 
plumose. Grain unknown. — Perennial ; leaf-blades lanceolate with 
transverse veins ; ligules thin, scarious ; racemes simple or slightly 
compound at the base, sessile or the lower apparently peduncled 
owing to the arrest of the basal spikelets and the elongation of the 
lowest internode, arranged in a second panicle. 
Species 1 or 2, endemic in tropical Africa. 
1. C. secunda, Staff in Hook. 1c. PI. t. 3072. Culms ascending, 
sometimes emitting long flagelliform aerial roots from the nodes, 
many-noded, fistular, quite glabrous and smooth, the lower inter- 
nodes up to over 3 in. long. Leaf-sheaths subherbaceous, more or 
less open, densely ciliate along the margins, with spreading tubercle- 
based hairs on the back and at the junction with the blade, or 
glabrous ; ligules rotundate- truncate, J lin. long ; blades lanceolate, 
acutely acuminate, contracted at the base into a mobile joint, which 
turns brown on drying, 3-4 in. by 7-10 lin., soft green, with scattered 
very short tubercle-based hairs on both sides and very fine long 
hairs on both sides of the midrib below, scaberulous along the 
margins, midrib slender, whitish, prominent and obtuse below, 
primary lateral nerves 3-4 on each side, like the secondary very fine, 
transverse veins numerous but delicate. Panicle 4-5 in. long, long- 
exserted ; common axis triquetrous, with cartilaginous almost 
smooth angles ; lower racemes distant, up to 1| in. long, the upper 
approximate, much shorter, all solitary or the lowest 2-nate, their 
rhachis similar to the common axis, but slender, J-§ lin. wide, quite 
green, lowest internodes or bare base up to f in. long ; pedicels 
subangular with subdiscoid tips, pruinose or scaberulous, the longer 
