514 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
[ Brachiaria . 
7-9-nerved with very few inconspicuous cross-veins near the apex ; 
upper ovate-oblong, acuminate, acute or when flattened out sub- 
obtuse, membranous, rather firmer than the lower and as long as it 
or as long as the spikelet, hairy upwards, 7-nerved with numerous 
conspicuous cross-veins. Lower floret 2| lin. long : valve elliptic, 
subacute to acute, concave, firmly membranous, loosely hairy on 
the sides upwards, 5-nerved, with cross-veins ; valvule thin, elliptic, 
subacute, as long as the valve, keels narrowly winged ; anthers 
If lin. long. Upper floret over 2 lin. long, dorsally compressed, 
gaping at the top : valve oblong, mucronulate, 2 lin. long, thinly 
crustaceous, pale straw-coloured, glabrous, finely granular or sub- 
ruggse ; valvule of similar structure with rather narrow flaps ; anthers 
as in the floret. Stigmas pale, not exceeding the valvule nor 
laterally exserted (always ?). — Panicum Rautanenii , Hack, in Bull. 
Herb. Boiss. 2me. ser. ii. (1902) 935. 
Lower Guinea. Amboland : Ondonga, Bautamn ! 
4. B. hians, Stp,j)f. Perennial, up to 2 ft. high. Culms erect, 
quite simple, very slender, terete or compressed below, 1-2-noded, 
with the uppermost node below the middle, glabrous and smooth 
except for a short hairy zone beneath the nodes; Leaf-sheaths 
(basal leaves not known) tight, terete, striate, smooth, more or less 
ciliolate towards the mouth, otherwise glabrous or nearly so, smooth ; 
ligules a ciliolate rim ; blades linear from an equally broad base, 
long-tapering to a fine point, up to over 3 in. by 2 lin., convolute, 
rigid, green, glabrous, margins cartilaginous, scabrid at least upwards, 
closely nerved, primary lateral nerves only slightly differentiated 
below. Inflorescence of 3-2 obliquely spreading secund spiciform 
subsessile racemes ; common axis filiform, semiterete, hispidulous 
close to the nodes, otherwise finely pubescent on the face and slightly 
scaberulous on the angles, lower (or only) internode 1J-1J in. long, 
upper if present 1 in. long. Racemes simple, moderately dense, 
lower up to If in. long, upper If-f in. long, dull greenish, Lseriate 
or sub-2-seriate ; rhachis trigonous below, flattened upwards, very 
slightly wavy, up to J lin. wide, minutely puberulous, angles scabe- 
rulous and irregularly ciliate, green, internodes 1-2 lin. long ; pedicels 
solitary, extremely short, hispid. Spikelets distinctly discontiguous 
or subcontiguous if 1-seriate, oblong and subacute in back or front 
view, obliquely obovate and much gaping in side view, *2-2 f lin. 
long, finely pubescent. Glumes more or less unequal ; lower oblong 
to linear- oblong, narrower than the superposed lower floret, obtuse 
to subacute, about two-thirds the length of the spikelet, thinly 
membranous, delicately pubescent at least downwards, 5-nerved, 
nerves greenish ; upper glume oblong, subobtuse, slightly shorter 
than or as long as the fertile spikelet, membranous, 5-nerved (some- 
times with a faint additional submarginal nerve) with about 3 bars 
of cross-veins, finely and loosely pubescent all over with a few longer 
