Brachiaria. ] 
CLVII. GBAMINEiE (Stapf). 
535 
Glum. i. 63 ; Schweinf. Beitr. FI. Aethiop. 301 ; Durand & Schinz, 
Consp. FI. Afr. v. 757 ; Ohiov. in Ann. Istit. Bot. Roma, viii. 304. 
Nile Land. Eritrea: Sarae; by the Mareb River near Gundet, 5570 ft., 
Pappi, 373. Abyssinia : Gallabat ; Matamma, gregarious, Scliweinfurth, 
1007 ! 1154 ! in the swamps of Walcha plain, Schimper, 1553 ! 1G08 ! Sudan : 
Khartoum (?), Massey. 
The two sheets of Schimper 1G08 at Kew and at the British Museum 
are named Panicum equitans, Hochst., on the distribution label, but the 
Kew sheet represents a species of Echinochloa. To judge from A. Richard's 
and Steudel’s descriptions of Panicum equitans it is evident that, they had an 
Echinochloa before them, and Steudel actually places it in his section Echinochloa. 
(_ ITlXujro^er) 
26. B. nigropedata A Stapf. Perennial, compactly caespitose, 
1-2| ft. high, on a short oblique rhizome which is densely beset with 
fascicles of culms and intravaginal innovations coated by the firm 
basal sheaths. Culms erect, rather slender, glabrous or finely 
pubescent, about 3-noded, simple, internodes exserted, except the 
lowest. Leaves mostly crowded at the base ; sheaths tight, terete, 
rather firm, the outer and lowermost densely tomentose, the follow- 
ing gradually less hairy or spreadingly hirsute, the uppermost finely 
pubescent or glabrous ; ligules a fringe of short rigid hairs ; blades 
linear from a narrow base, long-tapering to a fine point, 4-10 in. 
by 2J-3 lin., erect, subrigid to flaccid, softly pubescent, sometimes 
finely hirsute, pale or yellowish-green. Inflorescence up to 5 in. long, 
subsecund or secund, of 3-8 or sometimes more erect or spreading 
secund spiciform racemes ; common axis semiterete or flattened 
upwards or adaxillarily channelled in the lower part, pubescent or 
puberulous, scaberulous along the angles. Racemes simple, very 
dense, 2-seriate, greyish, 1 (rarely 1 J) to J in. long ; rhachis flattened 
on the back, with a very slender prominent midrib on the face, 
up to | lin. wide, puberulous or minutely hirsute, rigidly ciliate along 
the margins, tomentose at the base, internodes J-f in. long ; pedicels 
solitary, very short, stout, setulose with slightly thickened tips. 
Spikelets closely contiguous, broad or elliptic-oblong in outline, 
cuspidate, turgid, constricted at the base into a short glabrous black 
stipe, including it 2 lin. long, pale greenish or greyish, silkily villous. 
Glumes very unequal, the lower subhyaline, broad, ovate, acute or 
acuminate, half the length of the spikelet, 3-5-nerved, pubescent. 
Upper glume membranous, very convex on the back, elliptic, cuspidate, 
as long as the spikelet, faintly 5-nerved, loosely hairy, the uppermost 
hairs longer. Lower floret as long as the spikelet, : valve equal 
and similar to the upper glume, hyaline and subglabrous along the 
depressed back, hairy on the sides with a more or less distinct tuft 
of longer hairs on each side below the tip, or more evenly hairy ; 
anthers 1 lin.- long ; valvule elliptic-oblong, subacute with fine keels, 
flaps broad near the tip, then narrow and wide again at the base. 
Upper floret broad-oblong, apiculate or minutely mucronulate, 
nearly 1| lin. long, white, almost smooth ; valve and valvule crus- 
taceous. — Panicum nigropedatum, Munro ex Hiern in Trans. Linn, 
