Brachiaria.] 
CL' VII. GRAMTNEiE (Stapf). 
551 
rkachis trigonous, very slightly wavy or straight, lin. wide, 
scabrid on the angles, otherwise glabrous or pubescent and with 
or without scattered fine long hairs, intermediate internodes lj-3 
lin. long ; pedicels solitary and short, less frequently 2-nate, very 
unequal, the longer 1, rarely up to 2 lin. long, scabrid with long fine 
hairs at the tips. Spikelets broad-oblong, obtuse or subobtuse, not 
apiculate, slightly turgid, quite glabrous, 1 J-l J lin. long. Glumes very 
unequal, the lower very broadly ovate, subacute, clasping, one-third 
the length of the spikelet, hyaline, 1-nerved, sometimes with several 
very short lateral nerves ; upper glume corresponding in outline and 
size to the spikelet, membranous, 7- rarely 5-nerved, nerves fine, 
more marked and prominent upwards. Lower floret neuter : valve 
very similar to the upper glume, 5-nerved ; valvule oblong, truncate, 
more or less reduced. Upper floret slightly shorter than the 
lower, oblong, subacute, pale ; valve and valvule crustaceous, finely 
transversely rugose or almost smooth. — Panicum Hygrocharis, 
Schweinf. in Bull. Herb. Boiss. ii. App. ii. 23 ; not of Steud. P. nudi- 
glume , var. major , Balf. f. Bot. Socotra, 311. 
Nile Land. Nubia : O-Mareg, west of Sinkat, 3000 ft., Schweinf urth, 685 
partly ! Socotra, Balfour, 47 ! 
Also in tropical Arabia (Hodjela, Schweinfurth, 900 ! and Aden, Birdwood !). 
A very similar grass was collected by Stocks near Karachi, Scind, but the 
spikelets are somewhat larger (If lin. long), and the lower glume distinctly 
5-nerved and very acute. Some of his specimens are, like those collected by 
Balfour in Socotra, distinctly perennial as described above. 
40. B. leersioides^ StapJ . Annual, 1-2 ft. high, the whole plant 
more or less glaucous. Culms in small fascicles, more or less 
geniculate, suberect or ascending and then the lower internodes, which 
are generally somewhat compressed, often arching, about 4-noded, 
branched below, slender, grooved on the adaxillary side, glabrous, 
smooth, often with a fine waxy coating. Leaf-sheaths rather thin, 
the lower more or less compressed, loose and often slipping off the 
culm, longer than the internodes, the upper tighter and terete, all 
quite glabrous and smooth or the lower with spreading tubercle- 
based hairs ; ligules thinly membranous, up to J lin. long, truncate, 
ciliate ; blades linear from an equally wide or somewhat narrowed 
base, long-tapering to a slender point, 3 to over 6 in. by 2-4 lin., 
flat, thin, subflaccid, glabrous or with a few tubercle-based hairs 
downwards, slightly rough, nerves numerous and very close, about 
3-4 primary laterals on each side, midrib very slender. Panicle 
at length usually long-exserted, ovate to oblong in outline, 3-8 (rarely 
up to 9) in. long, of 4-12 solitary distant quaquaversal horizontally 
spreading or somewhat deflexed slender spike-like racemes ; common 
axis slender, grooved, straight or subflexuous ; racemes up to 
(rarely up to over 2) in. long, the uppermost often much shorter, 
shortly (1-1J lin.) peduncled to subsessile, the longer often sub- 
