Brachiaria.] clvii. gramineje (Stapf). 
565 
species on a plant distributed by Schimper under no. 1853 (sect. III). The 
specimens of this number, as far as I have seen them, belong to Panicum 
meyerianum, Nees, and A. Richard’s description supports that identification. 
Steudel had evidently the same plant under Schimper s number 1853. 
According to Chiovenda the plant from Assaorta has rigid, hard culms, very 
obtuse, whitish glossy and quite glabrous spikelets, with the tips of the upper 
glume and lower vaive subcartilaginous, and the nerves slightly or not at all 
raised. The duration of the plant is given as biennial or possibly perennial. 
The description of the spikelets suggests B. ovalis. On the other hand Chiovenda 
compares the grass with Panicum velutinosum ( = P. molle), P. distichophyllum 
and P. Jcotschyanum, and adds that A. Richard’s description of P .schimper ianum 
points to a species different from the Amasen plant, whilst Steudel’s treat- 
ment of it suggests an affinity with P. maximum. In view of these conflicting 
statements and in the absence of specimens I am unable to verify Chiovenda’s 
determination. 
55. Panicum subquadriparum, Trim, ex Hack, in Bolet. Soc. Brot. r> 
vi. (1888) 141. 
Mozambique Distr. Portuguese East Africa : banks of the Zambesi, 
Carvalho. 
P. subquadriparum, Trin., described from specimens collected by Escholz 
and Chamisso in the Marianne Islands, is identical with P. distachyuw, Linn. 
(Brachiaria distachya, Stapf), a species not recorded so far from continental 
Africa. Durand & Schinz in their Conspectus Florae Africce, vol. v. (1895) 
747, quote it for Mauritius, citing P. subquadriparum as synonym on Hackel’s 
authority, but do not refer to Carvalho’s plant and its determination by 
Hackel. Can the latter be P. arrectum, Hackel in Durand & Schinz, l.c. 741, 
under which P. subquadriparum, Nees (non Trin.), is given as a synonym ? 
I know this, however, only from extratropical South Africa. 
56. Panicum velutinosum, Nees in Chiov. in Ann. Istit. Bot. Roma, 
viii. 303. 
Nile Land. Eritrea : Amasen ; Mai Atal, Pappi, 3203. Ocule Cusai ; 
Loggo Sarda, Deggahea, 8500 ft., Pappi, 1385. Maragus ; Cohait. 5570 ft., 
Pappi, 1019. 
P. velutinosum, Nees, which is identical with P. molle, Swartz (see Hitch- 
cock in Contrib. U.8. Nat. Herb. xii. 137), is a species of tropical America, and 
not a Brachiaria, as this genus is understood here. From Chiovenda’s remarks 
(l.c. 304) it appears that the Amasen specimens have smaller spikelets (1-1^ 
lin. long) with a scantier indumentum and less rugose fertile floret, and re- 
semble as to size and disposition those of P. Jcotschyanum, which has, however, 
a more mucronate upper glume and lower valve. The other examples have 
longer and turgid spikelets (1£-1§ lin.) which are, moreover, densely hairy, 
with the hairs increasing in length upwards. They approach “Panicum 
helopus ” as to the shape of the spikelets, but lack the characteristic mucro of 
the latter. In the absence of specimens I am unable to refer Chiovenda’s 
P. velutinosum to any of the species of Brachiaria described here. 
63. AX0N0PUS, P. Beauv. Agrost. 12. 
Spikelets elliptic-oblong to oblong or lanceolate, depressedly 
biconvex, falling entire from the rudimentary pedicels, solitary, 
secund and adaxial on the triquetrous or more or less flattened 
