Brachiaria~\ 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
561 
thin cataphylls. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, slender, 
terete, many-noded, more or less branched below, with the branches 
erect Leaf -sheaths rather tight, firm, shorter than the internodes 
except in the lower parts, striate, with hairy margins and mouth ; 
ligules a ciliate narrow rim ; blades linear-lanceolate from an equally 
wide base, tapering to a fine acute point, 1J-3J in. by 2-4 lin., rigid, 
spreading, glabrous or the lowest loosely hairy, margins cartilaginous, 
crisped here and there, minutely spinulose, nerves fine, numerous 
but obscure, the uppermost blade very short. Inflorescence erect, 
secund, up to 2J in. long, of up to 8 short oblique dense subsessile 
spiciform racemes ; common axis slender. Racemes simple, secund, 
2-seriate, the lowest about J in. long and up to 8-spiculate, the follow- 
ing gradually shorter with fewer (to 2 or even 1) spikelets ; rhachis 
very slender, wavy, subtriquetrous, up to § lin. wide, pubescent at 
the bare base, otherwise very minutely puberulous on the back, with 
or without some longer hairs from the angles ; internodes \ lin. long ; 
pedicels very short, sparingly setulose, tips subdiscoid. Spikelets 
contiguous, broadly elliptic-oblong or elliptic in outline, subobtuse, 
turgid, 1J-1J lin. long, pale greenish. Glumes very dissimilar, 
membranous, minutely hairy ; lower broad-ovate, subobtuse, 3- 
nerved, between a third and half of the length of the spikelet ; upper 
broad-elliptic, obtuse, very convex on the back, almost semi-elliptic 
in profile, distinctly shorter than the spikelet, sometimes equal- 
ling only three-fourths of the fertile floret, faintly 5-nerved. Lower 
floret : valve corresponding in outline and size to the spikelet 
(in front view), depressed on the back, very narrow in profile, faintly 
5-nerved, minutely hairy on the sides ; valvule elliptic, obtuse, 
almost as long as the valve, keels slender, flaps narrow ; anthers 
| lin. long. Upper floret elliptic-oblong, subacute, almost as 
long as the lower, the upper part more or less exposed, whitish : 
valve and valvules crustaceous, smooth or nearly so. — Panicum 
andongense, Rendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 167. 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Pungo Andongo ; in wet places, Welwiisch, 2793 ! 
48. B. coma Annual, up to over 1 ft. high, loosely 
tufted. Culms suberect or geniculately ascending from a decumbent 
base, usually very slender, terete, more or less pubescent to almost 
glabrous, 4-many-noded, branched below or almost all along. Leaf- 
sheaths rather tight, the lowest often slipping off the culm, terete, 
strongly striate, softly hairy to subhirsute or glabrous with the 
exception of the pubescent outer margin and the villosulous nodes ; 
ligules reduced to a dense fringe of short hairs ; blades lanceolate 
to linear-lanceolate from a rounded base, tapering to a very acute 
point, 1J-3 in. by 2J-6 lin., flat, rather firm and somewhat succulent, 
pale or yellowish-green, loosely and softly hairy to almost glabrous, 
or subhirsute with minutely tubercle-based hairs, margins markedly 
cartilaginous and closely ciisped, spinulously ciliolate, nerves very 
PL. TROP. APR. VOL. IX. — PT. 3. 2 O 
