584 
\BracJiiaria . 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
outline and size to the spikelet, 7-nerved, with nerves scaberulous 
upwards and with some fine cross-veins, very delicately pubescent. 
Lower floret as long as the spikelet, : valve similar to the upper 
glume, somewhat flattened on the back, 7-nerved, the inner side- 
nerves smooth, raised upwards, the intermediate scabrid, the median 
part of the valve between them smooth, the sides scaberulous ; val- 
vule oblong, acuminate, finely keeled, with narrow flaps vanishing 
upwards ; anthers J lin. long. Upper floret hermaphrodite, some- 
what shorter than the lower, broad, elliptic-oblong, apiculate, 1-J lin. 
long : valve and valvule semicrustaceous, smooth, very, delicately 
striate . — Panicum callopus , Pilg. in Engl. Jahrb. xxxiii. 46. 
Nile Land. Bongolancl : Gir, Schweinfurth, 2151 ! 
25. B. obtusiflora^ Stapf. Annual, up to 3 ft. high. Culms erect 
or geniculately ascending, stout, 4-5-noded, simple, glabrous and 
smooth, upper internodes exserted. Leaf-sheaths rather loose, not 
very firm, the lower slipping from the culm, glabrous or more or 
less loosely hairy, hairs fine, from a minute tubercle ; ligules quite 
suppressed ; blades linear to lanceolate-linear from an equally wide 
or constricted and rounded base, tapering to a slender acute point, 
3 to over 8 in. by 3-5 lin., flat, pale green or yellowish when dry, 
loosely and finely hairy or glabrous or becoming so, margins 
cartilaginous, spinulously scabrid, midrib slender, whitish, promi- 
nently so, primary lateral nerves obscure. Inflorescences contracted, 
2 to over 6 in. long, erect, narrowly oblong, subsecund, of 5-8 sub- 
erect dense and broad spiciform racemes ; common axis somewhat 
stout, triquetrous with scabrid or ciliolate angles or setulose down- 
wards, the keel on the face sharply prominent. Racemes irregularly 
pluriseriate, compound, 2~g in. long, 4-5 lin. wide, secund, longer 
than the internodes, hence more or less contiguous or subimbricate 
upwards ; rhachis subtriquetrous, from over \ to \ lin. wide, straight, 
angles scabrid or downwards sparingly hairy, internodes 1 lin. long 
or less ; secondary racemes of mostly 3, rarely 4, spikelets, very 
short and contracted forming fascicles of as many spikelets ; pedicels 
stout, extremely short, with discoid tips, glabrous. Spikelets densely 
crowded, very turgid, ellipsoid to oblong-ellipsoid, very obtuse, 
contracted at the base into a stipe J lin. long, about 2 lin. long, pale 
or yellowish, sometimes variegated with purple, quite glabrous. 
Glumes very dissimilar ; lower rounded, very obtuse, broadly 
clasping, 5-nerved, nerves not anastomosing, firmly membranous to 
chartaceous ; upper corresponding in outline and size to the spikelet, 
chartaceous, finely 5-nerved. Lower floret as long as the spikelet : 
valve very similar to the upper glume, 5-nerved; valvule elliptic, 
obtuse, almost as long as the valve ; anthers 1J lin. long. Upper 
floret elliptic-oblong, subobtuse, pale, 1J lin. long ; valve and val- 
vule crustaceous, smooth ; anthers slightly over 1 lin. long .- — Panicum 
ohtusijlorum, A. Rich. Tent. El. Abyss, ii. 367.; Steud. Syn. PI. 
