522 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
f. Brachiaria . 
and smooth. Racemes simple, rather dense, somewhat slender, 
§-l in. long, 2-seriate in plan, but 1 -seriate by the dove-tailing 
of the ranks ; rhachis somewhat flat with a slender raised midrib 
on the face, almost -J lin. wide, hairy on the pulvinus, otherwise 
glabrous, lateral angles thickened and smooth ; pedicels solitary, 
very short, glabrous or with a few setules from below the subdiscoid 
tips. Spikelets laterally contiguous, imbricate (seen from the 
front), broadly oblong to elliptic-oblong or subobovate, obtuse, 
1L lin. long, greenish, glabrous. Glumes similar in shape, of equal 
or almost equal length, membranous ; the lower broad-elliptic to 
obovate-elliptic, clasping at the base, obtuse, as long or almost 
as long as the spikelet, 13 -17-nerved with free nerve-ends and with- 
out cross-veins; upper , 7-nerved with numerous cross-veins, as 
long as the spikelet. Lower floret almost or quite as long as 
the spikelet : valve broad-oblong, subacute, membranous, 5- 
nerved, with the lateral nerves near the margin and with more 
or less prominulous numerous cross -nerves ; valvule subobtuse, 
slightly shorter than the valve, with smooth fine keels. Upper 
floret elliptic in outline, obtuse or subapiculate, almost as long 
as the spikelet, pale, dull ; valve and valvule chartaceous, deli- 
cately rugulose or almost smooth. Anthers 1 lin. long. — Panicum 
brevispicatum , Rendle in Cat. Afr. PL Welw. ii. 168 (partly). 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Pungo Andongo ; common in sandy low-lying 
wooded meadows between Conda and Quisonde, Welwitsch. , 2829 ! 
Rendle also refers to his Panicum, brevispicatum, a specimen collected by 
Welwitsch near Muta Lucala in the Pungo Andongo district (no. 2726). This, 
however, although very similar in many respects, differs in having slightly 
smaller oblong spikelets with the lower glume constantly only half the length 
of the spikelet and the upper glume somewhat shorter than the glossy fertile 
floret. It closely approaches in this way B. reticulata, whose spikelets are, 
however, still smaller and narrower and have only 11 nerves in the lower 
glume ; further, the blades of B. reticulata are quite glabrous on the upper 
side, although otherwise of the type of B. brevispicata. Welwitsch 2726 
has also 4-5-noded culms with short weak flowering branches from most 
of the nodes except the lowest, and the lower nodes are relatively long ; but 
this difference may be entirely due to edaphic conditions and need not be 
insisted upon. Rendle also quotes under P. brevispicatum a specimen col- 
lected by Mungo Park in Gambia, which in my opinion is B. stigmatisata . 
13. B. reticulata, Stapf. Annual (always ?), J-l| ft. high, loosely 
tufted. Culms ascending from a geniculate and frequently pros- 
trate many-noded base, branched, very slender, terete or somewhat 
compressed below, glabrous and smooth, the branches often gathered 
in fascicles. Leaves crowded above the prostrate bases or more or 
less evenly distributed ; sheaths somewhat loose, compressed (at 
least the lower), striate, glabrous except at the ciliate margins ; 
ligules reduced to a ciliate membranous rim ; blades lanceolate 
to linear-lanceolate from a more or less rounded base, tapering 
to an acute point, 1-3 in. by 3J-4J lin., flat or slightly involute, 
somewhat firm but rather thin, glabrous, margins stoutly car- 
