574 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
[Paspalum. 
or (rarely) elongated and acute auricles, glabrous, smooth . Racemes 
suberect or spreading, straight or arching, moderately stout, the 
lateral shortly peduncled or more often subsessile, 1-2 (rarely 3) in. 
long ; rhachis pubescent (with some longer hairs added) at the base, 
herbaceous and glabrous above it, flat on the back, mostly f-lj lin. 
wide, rarely much narrower (to slightly over 4 lin.) or wider (up to 
lin.), with a slender but sharply projecting acute straight or 
zig-zag keel on the face and with scabrid margins, internodes about 
•| lin. long ; pedicels solitary, the lower sub terete, the following 
flattened dorsally, with acute scaberulous angles, usually slightly 
curved and placed aslant the wings of the rhachis, often up to their 
margin, thereby chambering the face of the rhachis more or less 
completely, glabrous. Spikelets 2-seriate, mostly back to back, 
laterally contiguous or almost so, rarely both ranks facing more or 
less one way and subimbricate, broad-elliptic to ovate- or obovate- 
elliptie, rarely almost orbicular, obtuse to subacute, plano-convex, 
mostly about 1 lin. long, rarely much smaller (to \ lin.) or much 
larger (to slightly over 14 lin.), dull brown, quite glabrous, vary- 
ing from pale greyish-green or tawny- to umber-brown. Lower 
glume 0 ; upper corresponding in size and outline to the spikelet, very 
convex, thinly membranous, 5-7 -nerved, the lateral nerves approxi- 
mate and submarginal. Lower floret reduced to its valve which is 
flat, membranous, mostly 5- less often 7-nerved, with the outermost 
pair of nerves submarginal in the flexure, the additional (intra- 
marginal) pair, if present, often shorter. Upper floret ^ : valve very 
convex on the back, glossy, pale to chestnut-brown, firmly crus- 
taceous, obscurely 5-nerved ; valvule with the flaps widened into a 
broad auricle below the middle. Anthers J lin. long. Grain 
rotundate-elliptic, very convex in front, flat on the back, pale ; 
scutellum up to half the length of the grain. — P. Commersonii , Lam . 
111. i. 175, t. 43, fig. 1. P. Kom, Willd. Sp. PI. i. 332, and Hort. 
Berol. t. 74 ; P. Beauv. PI. Owar ii. 45, t. 85, fig. 1 ; Roxb. PI. Ind. ed. 
Carey, i. 282 ; Grah. Cat. Bomb. PI. 234 ; Duthie, Indig. Podd. 
Grass, t. 2, and Podd. Grass. N. Ind. 1. P. scrobiculatum , Bojer, 
Hort. Maurit. 361 (partly ?) ; Webb, Spied. Gorg. 187 ; Hook. 
Niger PI. 557 ; Miq. FI. Ind. Batav. iii. 430; Benth. FI. Hongk. 408, 
and in PI. Austral, vii. 460 (partly) ; Baker, FI. Maurit. 432 (partly) ; 
Hack, in Bolet. Soc. Brot. v. 210, and vi. 140 ; Klatt in Jahrb. Hamb. 
Wiss. Anst. ix. 120 ; Cordemoy, FI. Reun. 114 ; Ridley in Agr. Bull. 
Straits and Fed. Mai. St. ii. 275 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. PI. Afr. 
v. 738, and fitudes PI. Congo, 320 ; K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. 
C. 100 ; Pranch. Contr. PI. Congo Franp. 30 ; Hook. f. PI. Brit. 
Ind. vii. 10 (partly) ; Stapf in Dyer, PI. Cap. vii. 370 ; Durand & 
De Wild, in Compt.-Rend. Soc. Bot. Belg. xxxvi. ii. 90, and Mat. 
PI. Congo, i. 44 ; Rendle, Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 162 ; De Wild. & 
Durand, Contrib. FI. Congo, ii. 71, and in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 2me ser. 
i. 60 ; Wood, Natal PI. ii. t. 134 ; De Wild. PI. Util. Congo, i. 518-519 
