Brachiaria .] clvii. gramine^j (Stapf). 589 
This variety is perhaps only an edaphic or climatic modification of typical 
B. serrata. Very similar states were collected by Schlechter (no. 1721, dis- 
tributed as Panicum serratum f. minor), and Burchell in Riversdale Division 
and by the latter also in Mossel Bay Division (Cape of Good Hope). 
29 . B. brachylop^^^£f/^ Perennial, up to 3 ft. high, densely 
tufted with intra vaginal innovations ; root-fibres stout, densely 
tomentose. Culms usually erect or shortly ascending, simple or 
very sparingly branched near the base, about 6- or 7-noded, the 
lower and intermediate internodes enclosed in their sheaths or 
only shortfy exserted, hairy below the nodes, the uppermost by far 
the longest, very slender, glabrous. Leaf-sheaths tight, striate, 
moderately firm, the lowest very short, silkily tomentose, the 
following rapidly increasing in length, softly hirsute ; ligules reduced 
to a fringe of short hairs ; blades linear, long-tapering to a slightly 
callous point, of the lowest and uppermost leaves very short, the 
others up to 4 in. by 1J-2-J lin., fiat, rigid, pale or glaucous green, 
softly hirsute all over, margins cartilaginous, minutely wavy or 
crisped, with very small rather distant spinules, nerves numerous, 
close, midrib and about 5 (on each side) lateral primary nerves only 
slightly differentiated below. Inflorescence very narrow, 3-5 in. 
long, of up to 12 rather distant suberect rarely spreading racemes ; 
common axis filiform, subterete to semiterete, angular, glabrous 
and almost smooth, terminating with a spikelet. Racemes sessile 
or the lower on finely filiform peduncles (up to 1 lin. long), simple, 
2-seriate, dense, silvery white, 6-4 lin. long ; rhachis finely filiform, 
about — lin. wide, subtriquetrous, scaberulous, internodes mostly 
less than J lin. long ; pedicels solitary, all very short with discoid 
tips and some long fine hairs below them. Spikelets contiguous or 
subimbricate, ovoid-oblong or elliptic- oblong in outline, turgid, 
slightly over 1J lin. long, silvery-silky. Glumes very unequal ; 
lower broad-ovate to rotundate, obtuse, hyaline, 3-nerved, pubescent, 
about half the length of the spikelet or almost so ; upper corre- 
sponding to the spikelet in size and outline, very concave, with a 
transverse fringe of silvery hairs slightly exceeding the delicate 
shortly acute or cuspidulate tips, pubescent below them, 5-nerved, 
the nerves quite obscure below the fringe, more distinct (at least 
the 3 inner) above it. Lower floret : valve resembling the upper 
glume but more cuspidate, grooved along the middle and there 
hyaline and glabrous, the bulging sides pubescent, each with a short 
transverse fringe of hairs corresponding to that of the upper glume ; 
valvule elliptic-oblong, acute ; anthers J lin. long. Upper floret ijf, 
elliptic-oblong, acute or apiculate, 1-1 J lin. long, whitish : valve and 
valvule thinly crustaceous, finely granulate, pubescent along the 
narrow indexed margin. — Panicum brachylophum, Stapf ex Cheval. 
Sudania, 13 (name). 
Upper Guinea. French Sudan : Upper Niger near Ouassana, Chevalier, 619 ! 
Ivory Coast : Dabou, in savannahs, Chevalier, 17148 ! Northern Nigeria : 
Lokoja, Richardson! . Nupe; on hills and in dry open plains, Barter, 1397 ! - 
