Paspalum .] 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
573 
except at the whitish base and the involute narrow margins, firmly 
crustaceous, obscurely 5-nerved ; valvule with broad slightly over- 
lapping hyaline auricles near the base. Anthers \ lin. long, yellow. — 
P. Zollingeri, Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 28 ; Balansa in Journ. de Bot. 
iv. (1890) 136. P. lamprocaryon , K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 
100. P. scrobiculatum , var. auriculatum , Merrill in Philipp. Journ. 
Sc. i. Suppl. i. 345. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone : Bumban, 650 It., Thomas , 1967 ! Kal-alla, 
1200 ft., Thomas, 2229 ! Jigaya, 1100 ft., Thomas, 2837 ! 
Nile Land. Niamniam country : Tuhami’s Seriba, Schweinfurth, 3786 ! 
Uganda : Entebbe, Fyffe, 197 ! Kirrema Forest, 4000 ft., Dummer , 411 ! 
'Mozambique Distr. German East Africa: Bukoba, Stuhlmann, 3901. 
Nyasaland : between Kondowe and Karonga, Whyte ! ' p , 
Also in Java, Tonkin and the Philippines. ( 
The valve of the lower floret of the Indo-Malayan specimens is always thinly 
membranous and flat, but in the African it is more or less cartilaginous or 
crustaceous and convex, approaching the structure of the valve of the upper 
floret, a modification frequently observed in other members of the Paspalum 
scrobiculatum group. 
(^Uourn , ) 
4. P. scrobiculatum, Linn., var. Commersonii* Stapf. Perennial 
(sometimes flowering the first year or annual ?), 1 to over 2 ft. high, 
usually scantily tufted from a short prsemorse rhizome with intra- 
vaginal and extravaginal innovations, the latter with appressedly 
hirsute cataphylls. Culms erect or ascending, sometimes from a 
prostrate and rooting many-noded base, simple or sparingly branched, 
5-noded, terete or slightly compressed below, glabrous, the upper 
and often also the intermediate internodes more or less exserted. 
Leaf-sheaths loosely clasping, the lower somewhat compressed and 
keeled, striate, usually glabrous except the basal which are commonly 
appressedly (rarely spreadingly) silky-hirsute downwards, rarely 
softly and loosely hirsute all over ; ligules membranous, short, 
truncate or ovate-rotundate ; blades linear to lanceolate-linear from 
an equally wide or slightly constricted base, up to 9 in. by 5 lin., 
but usually shorter and narrower (mostly 2-4 lin. wide), the upper- 
most sometimes much reduced, flat, soft or more or less rigid, quite 
glabrous or with a scanty beard of white hairs towards the base of the 
sheath, rarely softly and loosely hirsute all over, margins scabrid, 
lateral nerves 4-5 on each side, usually inconspicuous, midrib slightly 
prominent below. Inflorescence of mostly 2, less often 3 or 1, very 
rarely 4 spike-like racemes, terminal and ultimately more or less 
exserted from the uppermost sheath, very frequently with an ad- 
ditional raceme from the base of the peduncle, the accessory raceme 
remaining long or permanently enclosed in the supporting sheath ; 
common axis usually very short if the racemes are paired (rarely up 
to \ in. long), longer (up to 1 in., rarely 1J in.) if there are 3 or 4 
racemes, with the uppermost internode very short, or almost as long 
as the preceding, internodes 2-winged, wings wider upwards and either 
all or only those of the uppermost internode produced into short obtuse 
