504 
cl vii. graminete (Stapf). [ Leuco'phrys . 
(ttasoL) 
2. L. glomerata , A Stapf. Annual, tufted, J-l ft. high. Culms 
erect or ascending, sheathed all along or nearly so, about, 4-noded, 
angular or deeply grooved, pubescent upwards. Leaves softly 
pubescent to greyish- villous all over, sheaths lax, thin, striate, the 
lower whitish, the upper subherbaceous ; ligules a fringe of short 
hairs ; blades linear-lanceolate from an equally broad base, long- 
acuminate with fine callous recurved or curved spinous tips, up to 
3§ in. by 3 lin., flat or folded, soft, somewhat wavy, midrib like the 
primary lateral nerves (3-4 on each side) very slender, the latter often 
obscure. Panicle much contracted, made up of sessile rarely 
peduncled distant or approximate dense globose clusters or short 
subsecund false spikes, crowded or loosely disposed on a slender 
filiform angular villosulous common axis 2-4 in. long, the clusters or 
spikes 3-4 lin. across, greyish-villous, representing more or less 
compound racemes ; their rhachis filiform, subangular, up to ~ lin. 
in diam., villosulous, internodes usually very short or up to 1 lin. 
long ; secondary racemes very short, reduced to fascicles of up to 
4 spikelets, or if more then some frequently arrested ; pedicels 
fascicled, 2-nate or upwards solitary, slender, from very short to 
lin. long, silkily hairy, hairs about J lin. long, tips subdiscoid. 
Spikelets obscurely stipitate, lanceolate-elliptic, acutely acuminate 
or acute, up to over lin. long, pale or white or variegated with 
purple, hairy ; rhachilla very frequently continued beyond the fertile 
floret as a short bristle. Glumes unequal ; lower ovate, acute, half 
the length of the spikelet or almost so, delicately hyaline, 1 -nerved, 
silkily hairy ; upper only slightly firmer, corresponding in outline 
and size to the spikelet, with fine white hairs (|— § lin. long), finely 
but distinctly 5-nerved, nerves green or purplish or brown. Lower 
floret $ : valve very similar to the upper glume, rather widely 
involute upwards over the sides of the upper floret ; valvule broad- 
oblong, subacute or obtuse, subequal to the valve or shorter ; anthers 
up to f lin. long. Upper floret elliptic-oblong, subobtuse, 1-1J lin. 
long, whitish or pale brown ; valve and valvule at length crustaceous, 
smooth ; anthers about J lin. long . — Panicum glomeratum, Hack, 
in Yerhandl. Bot. Yer. Brandenb. xxx. 141, and in Engl. Jahrb. xi. 
398, and in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iv. App. iii. 14 ; Durand & Schinz, 
Consp. El. Afr. v. 750 ; Stapf in Dyer, El. Cap. vii. 393. 
Lower Guinea. Angola: Mossamedes ; Coroca River, Hopfner, 70! South- 
west Africa : Hereroland; without precise locality, Schinz, 37 ! sandy banks of 
the Tsuachaub River near Hykamchab, Marloth, 1186! on granite at Kam- 
koichar near Salem, Gurich, 130 ! 
Also in Great Namaland. 
The affinity of this grass with L. mesocoma suggested itself only after the key 
to the genera of Panicece had been published (see this volume, p. 14). The 
diagnosis of Leucophrys given there will therefore have to be modified thus : — 
“ Lower glume about as long or less than half as long as the spikelet, whitish and 
subhyaline to delicately hyaline ; upper glume and lower valve long hairy ; 
racemes short, lax owing to lengthening of pedicels or much contracted and com- 
pound ; spikelets without any very definite orientation as regards their rhachis. 5 
