540 
[ Brachiaria . 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
.OW) 
30. B. arida A $m#/’. Perennial, about 1|- ft. high, glaucous. Culms 
tufted on a short rhizome with rather stout root-fibres ; innovation- 
buds ovoid, glabrous. Culms geniculate, suberect, few-noded, 
branched below, the uppermost internode by far the longest, lower 
internodes slightly compressed and wiry, all quite glabrous and 
smooth. Leaf-sheaths quite glabrous or sparingly hairy upwards ; 
the basal very pale, slipping off the culms, slightly keeled ; ligules 
thinly membranous, very short, truncate, ciliate ; blades narrowly 
linear from an equally wide base, tapering to a long fine point, 2-8 in. 
by 1-3 lin., rather rigid, flat or convolute, glabrous or sometimes 
finely pubescent at the junction with the sheath, smooth except at 
the minutely scaberulous margin. Inflorescence very narrow, 
5-1-1- in. long, of 5-2 distant erect or oblique solitary rather stiff 
and loose racemes or reduced to a single raceme ; common axis 
very slender, angular, smooth or scabrid upwards and often sparingly 
hairy near the nodes. Racemes simple, up to almost 1J in. long, 
the upper much shorter and very scanty, very shortly peduncled 
or more often sessile ; rhachis triquetrous, about lin. wide, gla- 
brous or with a few hairs near the nodes, angles scabrid ; pedicels 
2-nate, very unequal, the longer \\ lin. long, or solitary and then 
up to 2 lin. long, all angular, scaberulous, with or without a few 
fine tubercle-based hairs. Spikelets oblong, subacute, slightly convex 
on the back, up to 2 lin. long, pale green, sometimes slightly flushed 
with red, glabrous. Glumes very unequal ; lower broad-ovate, 
acute, about one-third the length of the spikelet, membranous, 1- to 
sub-3-nerved ; upper corresponding in size and outline to the spikelet, 
thinly papery, 7-nerved. Lower floret : valve very similar to 
the upper glume, 5-nerved ; valvule almost as long as the valve, 
obtuse, keels narrowly winged ; anthers ~ lin. long. Upper floret 
oblong, slightly wider upwards, obtuse, over 1 J lin. long, smooth ; 
valve and valvule subcrustaceous. — Panicum aridum, Mez in Engl. 
Jahrb. xxxiv. 139. 
Nile Land. Somaliland, Hildebrandt , 1483. Socotra: Wadi Digal, 650 ft., 
Schweinfurth, 539 ! Kischen, 2100 ft., Schweinfurth , 584 ! 
C lUSJtauyrr* ^ 
31. B. leucacrantha^ Stapf. Annual, | to over 1 ft. high, loosely 
tufted. Culms geniculately ascending, slender, terete or subangular 
below, up to 8-noded, branched, lower and intermediate internodes 
enclosed, or bared by the slipping off of the sheaths, more or less 
pubescent, the uppermost at length exserted and glabrous. Leaf- 
sheaths rather loose, thin, striate, pubescent or softly hirsute, the 
uppermost and those of young leafy shoots tight ; ligules a dense 
fringe of short hairs ; blades linear, slightly narrower downwards, 
tapering to an acute point, 2-2 \ in. by 2-2 \ lin., flat, slightly succulent, 
densely and softly pubescent on both sides, margins scabrid, nerves 
numerous, fine, close, the primary lateral like the midrib distinguish- 
able below only. Inflorescence of 3-5 distant at length more or less 
