Brachiaria .] clvii. GRAMiNEiE (Stapf). 547 
very slender, whitish, primary lateral nerves about 4 on each side, 
very fine, differentiated below only. Panicle narrow, 2-3 in. long, 
subsecund, of 5-8 very lax suberect or spreading ultimately deflexed 
subsessile or sessile racemes ; common axis slender, angular, loosely 
pubescent with some longer hairs intermixed. Eacemes simple, 
secund or subsecund, the lower up to -J or more rarely 1 in. long, the 
upper rapidly decreasing and reduced to 4-2-nate or solitary spikelets 
which arrange themselves in a terminal raceme ; rhachis flexuous, 
filiform, triquetrous, up to J lin. wide, pubescent with some longer 
hairs intermixed, internodes 1 J-4 lin. long ; lowermost pedicels 2-nate, 
the others solitary and short, the longer of a pair rarely up to 
2 lin. long, angular, puberulous, with long hairs upwards. Spikelets 
distant, broadly ovate or elliptic-oblong, obtuse to subobtuse, 1-J to 
2 lin. long, whitish and more or less glossy, almost like ivory. Glumes 
dissimilar : lower very broadly obovate, subacute, usually contracted 
at the base into a deeply folded or puckered cuff which tightly clasps 
the internode between the glumes, very white, faintly 3-5-nerved ; 
upper very obtuse, broad, very slightly shorter than the lower floret, 
thinly papery, 5-nerved, nerves greenish, sometimes vanishing 
downwards. Lower floret (? always) : valve similar to the upper 
glume, but somewhat narrower upwards to obscurely apiculate, tip 
stouter ; valvule oblong, truncate with narro w flaps, shorter than the 
valve ; anthers § lin. long. Upper floret broad-elliptic in outline, 
subacute, 1J to over 1J lin. long, shortly constricted at the base : 
valve and valvule crustaceous, smooth, at length brownish. Grain 
broad-ellipbic in outline, dorsally compressed, over 1 lin by J lin., 
greenish-yellow ; scutellum about three-quarters the length of the 
grain, ovate-lanceolate to almost panduriform. — Panicum ovale, 
E. Br. in Salt, Voy. Abyss. App. iv. 63 (name) , Durand & Schinz, ££ 
Consp. FI. Afr. v. 758. 
Nile Land. Eritrea: Habab; in woods along streams, Hildebrandt, 387! 
Abyssinia. : without precise locality. Salt ! British Somaliland : Haud 
Thomson ! Bohotle and Upper Sheikh, Appleton ! 
Considered to be good fodder (Appleton). 
36. B, grossa, Stapf. Annual, up to over 1J ft. high. Culms 
fascicled or single, suberect from a geniculate base or erect, slender, 
terete, glabrous and very smooth, about 5-noded, branched from the 
base or above it, with the lowest 1 or 2 internodes elongated (2-5 in.), 
and the branches suberect or obliquely spreading. Leaf -sheaths 
rather thin, striate, often slipping off the internodes, pale or the 
upper subherbaceous, quite glabrous or with long fine spreading 
tubercle-based hairs ; ligules a fringe of short white hairs ; blades 
linear to sublanceolate-linear from a more or less rounded base, 
long-tapering to a fine point, 3-6 in. by 2-3 J lin., flat, thin, 
green or slightly glaucous, quits glabrous or with a few spreading 
marginal hairs at the very base, margins scaberulous, primary lateral 
