Axonopus.] 
CLVII. GRAMINEi® (Stapf). 
567 
frontal angle, reduced to smooth elliptic subsessile discs. Spikelets 
oblong to lanceolate- oblong, subacute to acute, not rarefy acuminate, 
1-lf rarefy 2 lin. long, green. Glume corresponding to the size and 
shape of the spikelet, with very narrowly incurved margins, mem- 
branous on the back, more or less papery on the sides, typically 
5-nerved, sometimes 4- nerved owing to the obliteration of the middle- 
nerve, side-nerves approximate towards the margins, 4 lines of very 
fine appressed hairs (one on each side between the side-nerves and 
another inside the inner side- nerve), or sometimes the hairs more 
loose and scanty, or the inner lines of hairs absent. Lower floret 
reduced to a valve very similar to the glume but usually without 
a middle-nerve. Upper floret $, much shorter than the spikelet, 
rarefy exceeding 1 lin., elliptic- oblong, obtuse, white : valve and 
valvule thinly crustaceous, the former very faintly 4-nerved, finely 
and shortly hairy at the tip. Anthers J lin. long. Grain elliptic in 
outline, obtuse, white, about lin. by lin. ; scutellum 
rotundate-elliptic, not reaching to the middle of the grain. — -Chase in 
Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. xxiv. 132 ; Hitch. & Chase in Contr. U.S. 
Nat. Herb, xviii. 300. Milium compressum, Sw. Prodr. 24. Paspalum 
tristachyum, Lam. 111. i. 176. P. platycaulon, Poir. Encycl. Suppl. v. 
34 ; Fluegge, Monogr. Pasp. 116 (Paspalus platycaulis ) ; Trin. Gram. 
Panic. 95, and Sp. Gram. Ic. 1. 118 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 48 ; Steud. Syn. 
PI. Glum. i. 22 (platycaule ) ; Baker, FI. Maurit. 431 ; Doell in Mart. FI. 
Bras. ii. ii. 101 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 738 ; Ridley in 
Agric. Bull. Straits & Fed. Malay St. ii. 275 ; Backer in Teysmannia, 
xxiv. 371 t. 8. P. compressum , Rasp, in Ann. Sci. Nat. Ire ser. v. 
301 ; Nees, Agrost. Bras. 23 ; Schlechtend. in Bot. Zeit. 1850, 682 ; 
Lamson-Scribn. in U.S. Dep. Agric. Div. Agrost. Bull. vii. 42, fig. 24 ; 
Ball in U.S. Dep. Agric. Div. Agrost. Circ. no. 28, 6. P. laticulmum , 
Spreng. Syst. i. 245. P. platyculmum, Pet. Thouars ex Nees, Agrost. 
Bras. 24 ; Kunth, l.c., 49 ; Steud. l.c., 30 ; Durand & Schinz, l.c. P. 
complanatum, Steud. l.c., 22. Anastrophus compressus, Schlechtend. 
ex Nash in North Amer. FI. xvii. 162. A. platycaulis , Nash in Small, 
FI. S.-E. U.S. 79. Panicum sanguinale , Klatt in Durand & De Wild, 
Mat. FI. Congo, i. 91 (accord, to the specimen quoted) ; not of Linn. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone : Mabum, 370 ft., Thomas , 1599 ! French 
Guinea : Timbo, Pobeguin, 1703 ! Ivory Coast : Cavally basin, Chevalier , 
19762 ! Southern Nigeria : banks of the Brass River, Barter , 1842 ! Opobo, 
'Jeffreys , 4 ! 29. Lagos; Ikoyi Plains, Dalziel, 1313 ! 
^ Lower Guinea. Belgian Congo : Kwango District ; sandbanks of islands of 
Kwilu River, Vanderyst , 2617 partly ! Stanley Pool District; Kutu, Vanderyst , 
3538 ! M’Sonata, Hens , C 162 ! 
Common throughout continental tropical America, in the West Indies and 
southern and south-eastern North America ; also known from Madagascar, 
Mauritius, and the Seychelles, in Singapore and Java, but evidently only 
introduced here. 
An important pasture grass in the West Indies, particularly on low moist land. 
Known as Carpet grass , 
