502 
CLVII. GRAMINE7E (Btapf). 
[Eriochloa. 
(upper only known) rather wide and loose, striate, very smooth 
and glabrous ; ligules reduced to a ciliate rim ; blades linear from 
a slightly wider base, long-tapering to a fine point, up to 6 in. by 5 bn., 
rather firm, yellowish-green, loosely and shortly hairy above, finely 
pubescent underneath, midrib slender, primary lateral nerves about 
5 on each side, very slender, prominent underneath. Panicle 
narrowly oblong, subsecund, 5-6 in. long, of numerous compound 
alternately approximate and distant more or less flexuous racemes ; 
common axis slender, densely greyish- villous ; racemes peduncled 
(peduncles of the lowest up to over J in. long) or the upper subsessile, 
simple only in the upper part, to over 2 in. long ; secondary racemes 
mostly 3-2-spiculate and short, about 1J lin. long, only the lowest 
longer (occasionally up to 6 lin.) ; rhachis very slender, triquetrous, 
up to lin. wide, densely greyish- or yellowish- villous ; secondary 
rhachises still finer ; pedicels very unequal, the longer up to 1 lin. 
long, very slender with subdiscoid tips, villous with some longer 
hairs upwards. Spikelets ovate-lanceolate, long aristulate-acumi- 
nate, 2 lin. long, pale, silky ; callous internode about § lin. wide. 
Lower glume reduced to a narrow membranous cupular rim, mostly 
purple ; upper faintly 5-nerved, more or less appressedly silky, with 
an awnlet up to 1 lin. long. Lower floret : valve very similar 
to the upper glume but slightly shorter, very acute but not aristulate ; 
valvule oblong, almost as long as the valve, 2-keeled, flaps narrow. 
Upper floret elliptic- oblong, slightly over 1 lin. long, pale; valve 
with a mucro up to § lin. long. 
Mozambique Distr. Nyasaland ; Nyika plateau Mwanemba, 7000 ft., 
McClounie, 8 ! 
61. LEUCOPHRYS, Rendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 193. 
Spikelets ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, dorsally slightly com- 
pressed, more or less stipitate, falling entire from the pedicels, solitary 
or 2-nate or fascicled, indistinctly or irregularly orientated with 
regard to the very slender subangular rhachis of the loose and race- 
mosely arranged or much contracted and clustered racemes ; lower 
floret (J, upper floret £>. Glumes as long as the spikelet or the 
lower shorter, separated by a distinct internode, whitish, delicately 
membranous or the upper firmer below the middle, softly hairy, 
the lower 1-5-, the upper 5-7-nerved. Lower floret equalling the 
upper glume : valve very similar to the upper glume, hairy ; valvule 
equal to the valve or shorter, 2-keeled. Upper floret glabrous : 
valve smooth, at length crustaceous, subacute to obtuse, faintly 
5-nerved ; valvule equalling the valve and similar in substance, 
2-keeled. Lodicules2, cuneate, fleshy. Stamens 3. Styles distinct ; 
stigmas plumose, exserted subterminally. Grain unknown. — Pe- 
rennial or annual ; blades linear, glaucous, drawn out into fine 
hardened and almost spinose points ; ligule reduced to a fringe 
of minute hairs ; panicles very narrow. 
