CLVII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
498 
[. Eriochloa . 
Culms geniculately ascending or erect, moderately slender to rather 
stout, 4-6- (rarely more-) noded, branched from the lower and 
frequently also from the intermediate nodes, glabrous. Leaf- 
sheaths often somewhat loose, subherbaceous, finely striate, smooth, 
quite glabrous except at the usually delicately pubescent nodes, 
very rarely with a few minute hairs ; ligules reduced to a line of 
cilia ; blades linear, from 2-6 (rarely more) in. by 2-4 (rarely 5) lin., 
slightly succulent and rigid, quite glabrous, very smooth, midrib 
very slender, lateral nerves very fine, numerous and close, the 
primary usually hardly differentiated. Panicle flaccid, narrow or 
more or less open, but always secund, 3-6 in. long (rarely under 
3 in.), of usually numerous suberect or obliquely spreading flexuous 
or drooping distant racemes ; common axis slender, subterete, 
channelled, striate, smooth and glabrous except at the scaberulous 
edges of the channel ; racemes peduncled (the lowest with the 
peduncles up to over 1 in. long), or the uppermost subsessile, usually 
simple or in robust specimens more or less compound downwards 
with short secondary racemes, 1 J-J in. long ; rhachis flat on the 
back lin. wide, with a slender acute projecting midrib on the 
face (hence more or less triquetrous in cross section), scaberulous 
all over ; pedicels 2-nate or solitary, the longer of a pair up to § or 
almost 1 lin. long, slender, finely scaberulous, occasionally with a 
very few fine hairs from the upper part, tips subdiscoid. S pikelets 
2-seriate, laterally contiguous, oblong, acute, mostly 1J lin. long, 
rarely less, rarely longer, pale green ; basal bead-like internode 
pale or one half blackish-purple, up to J lin. in diam. Lower glume 
reduced to a narrow membranous cupular rim around the bead ; 
upper very faintly 5-nerved, finely and appressedly and often scantily 
silky, very acute or minutely mucronate, but without an awnlet. 
Lower floret reduced to an empty valve, equalling and very similar 
to the upper glume. Upper floret finely punctate, 1 lin. long ; valve 
with a mucro lin. long. Anthers J lin. long. — Hack, in Bull. 
Acad. Int. Bot. xvi. 19 ; Merrill in Philipp. Journ. Sc. i. Suppl. 348 ; 
Hitchcock in Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. xii. 208. Eriochloa annulata , 
Kunth, Rev. Gram. i. 30, and Enum. i. 73 ; Duthie, List Grass. N.W. 
India, 2 ; Benth. FI. Hongkong, 409 ; Hack, in Engl. Jahrb. vi. 233. 
E. annulata , var. nov ., Kendle in Gregory, Great Rift Valley, 399. E. 
polystachya, Duthie, 111. Indig. Fodd. Grass. Ind. t. 41 ; Fodd. Grass. 
N. Ind. 2 ; Hook. f. FI. Brit Ind. vii. 20 ; Rendle in Journ. Linn. 
Soc. Bot. xxxvi. 320 ; not of H. B. & K. Milium ramosum , Retz, 
Obs. vi. 22 ; Roxb. FI. Ind. i. 317 ; Griff. Not. iii. 15 ; Ic. PI. Asiat. 
1. 139, f. 60. Agrostis ramosa, Poir. Encycl. Suppl. i. 257. Paspalum 
annulatum, Fluegge, Monogr. Pasp. 133 ; Trin. Sp. Gram. Ic. t. 133. 
Helopus Icevis , Trin. ex Spreng. Neue Entdeck. ii. 49. H. annulatus , 
Steud. Syn. Glum. i. 99 ; not of Nees. Piptatherum annulatum , 
Presl, Rel. Haenk. i. 221 ; not of Raddi. 
Nile Land. British East Africa : near Njemps, Lake Baringo, Gregory ! 
