EriocJdoa.\ 
CLVII. GEAMlNEiB (fcitapf). 
499 
Mozambique Distr. Gorman East Africa : Usambara ; by streams near 
Dugu, Holst, 3207 ! Portuguese East Africa : by the Luabo River, Kirk ! 
Beira, Rogers, 13114 ! 
Common throughout tropical Asia ; introduced into Ascension Island, 
St. Helena and Cuba, 
E. ramosa and the following species (E. acrotricha) are very closely allied and 
might, on a wider conception of the species, be treated as subspecies of a poly- 
morphic type which would also include an Australian form described by Bailey 
as E. decumhens, in Queensl. Agr. Journ. i. 234, and in Queensl. El. 1815, and 
figured in his Cat. Queensl. PI. fig. 584. E. ramosa as understood here appears 
to be remarkably uniform throughout Asia in respect to the size, shape and 
structure of the spikelets. Gregory’s and one of Roger’s specimens, quoted 
above have remarkably small spikelets (1 lin. long) and practically glabrous 
nodes. Another piece, however,? of Roger’s no. 13114 has spikelets of the 
usual size. /rC-#** 
2. E. acrotricha^ Hack, ex' Thell. in Viertelj. Naturforsch. Ges. 
Zurich , lii. 435; not in Denkschr. Akad. Wien. Math. -Nat. lxxviii. 
399. Annual, tufted, J to over 2 ft. high. Culms geniculately 
ascending, slender to somewhat robust, rarely quite erect, few- to 
over 5-noded, branched from the lower or sometimes also from the 
middle nodes, glabrous or finely pubescent below the inflorescence. 
Leaf-sheaths rather loose, often thin, finely striate, quite glabrous 
or very finely pubescent at the nodes or also higher up or all over ; 
ligules reduced to a line of cilia ; blades linear from an equally wide 
or shortly and slightly contracted base, long-tapering to an acute 
point, from less than J to over 6 in. by 1J-4 lin., thin and flaccid 
to rather firm and subrigid, quite glabrous or more or less minutely 
hairy on one or both sides (particularly the lower), smooth or slightly 
rough upwards, midrib slender to very fine, lateral primary nerves 
3-6 on each side, slender to very fine. Panicle narrow, flaccid, 1 J-4, 
rarely up to 5 in. long, of few to up to 10 (rarely more) suberect or 
obliquely spreading straight or flexuous distant racemes ; common 
axis slender, subterete, channelled, striate to angular, finely ciliolate 
or scaberulous upwards along the edges of the channel, otherwise 
glabrous or delicately pubescent ; racemes peduncled (the lower 
with the peduncles J to up to over 1 in. long) or subsessile, 1J-J in. 
long, terminating with a spikelet ; rhachis flat on the back, from 
less than J— | lin. wide, with a slender acute projecting midrib on the 
face (hence more or less triquetrous in cross-section), scabrid or 
scaberulous, here and there also ciliate along the angles, otherwise 
finely pubescent or almost glabrous ; pedicels 2-nate or solitary, 
all very short or the longer of a pair up to § and even 1 lin. long, 
slender, finely pubescent with few to many fine rigid hairs from below 
the subdiscoid tips, the hairs up to over 1 lin. long, forming suberect 
beards if numerous. Spikelets 2-seriate, laterally contiguous, ovate- 
lanceolate, long and finely aristulate- acuminate, including the 
acumen 2 lin. long, pale green, more or less silky ; 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 5-nerved, appressedly silky, awnlet up to \ lin. 
