586 
clvii. GRAMiNEiE (Stapf). [. Pasjpalidium . 
precise locality, Kotschy , 14 ! Eritrea : Shobo, Quartin Dillon ! 
Somaliland : at upper and lower Sheikh and at Burao, Appleton ! 
Also in tropical Arabia ( Fischer , 191 ! Schimper, 807 ! Schweinfurth, 893 ! 
Bent, 26 !). 
67. UR0CHL0A, Beauv. Agrost. 52, t. xi. fig. 1, 
Spikelets broad-ovate to elliptic- or lanceolate-oblong, awnless, 
usually more or less flattened or slightly depressed abaxially, convex 
on the back, falling entire from the pedicels, solitary or 2-nate or in 
fascicles of 3-4, secund and abaxial on the more or less triquetrous 
rarely strap-shaped rhachis of moderately slender or somewhat 
stout spiciform racemes ; lower floret g or barren with a well- 
developed valvule ; upper floret b. Glumes similar and sub equal 
or more often dissimilar and very unequal in length, the lower being 
the shorter, upper resembling and more or less equalling the valve of 
the lower floret, 5-11- (mostly 7-) nerved, with the nerves evenly 
distributed. Lower floret : valve 5-7-, rarely more-nerved, the 
inner lateral nerves somewhat distant from the midnerve ; valvule 
subequal to the valve with well-developed inflexed flaps and sharp 
sometimes marginate keels. Upper floret : valve elliptic to 
rotundate-elliptic in outline, very obtuse with a usually scabrid or 
barbellate mucro, crustaceous with firm margins, narrowdy involute, 
faintly 5-7-nerved; valvule almost as long as the valve, 2-keeled, 
its sides tightly embraced by the valve all along, of the same texture 
as the latter. Lodicules 2, small, broadly cuneate. Stamens 3. 
Styles distinct ; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted upwards. 
Grain tightly enclosed by the more or less hardened valve and 
valvule, broadly to rotundate-elliptic, dorsally compressed, more or 
less flattened on both faces with broadly rounded sides ; hilum 
subbasal, punctiform ; embryo half to over three-quarters the length 
of the grain. — -Perennial or annual ; blades linear to lanceolate, flat ; 
ligules reduced to a ciliate rim ; racemes sessile or subsessile on a 
common axis, simple or nearly so ; rhachis more or less triquetrous 
with a low almost straight or zigzag facial angle or keel, rarely strap- 
shaped ; pedicels solitary or in pairs, alternately to the right and 
the left of the facial angle, usually reduced to short disc-tipped 
stumps, or if 2-nate the primary slightly longer ; spikelets close, 
contiguous or slightly discontiguous, 2- or irregularly pluri-seriate, 
glabrous or hairy . — Panicum , § Brachiaria, Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. 
PI. iii. 1102 (partly). 
Species about 18, in the hot parts of the Old World, one also in America 
(introduced ?). 
Very similar to Brachiaria, but with the orientation of the spikelets inverted 
and a short fine mucro from the very obtuse apex of the fertile valve. Although 
very similar in general appearance, none of the species of Urochloa can be said 
to approach closely members of the genus Brachiaria. Their affinities are 
clearly inter se, suggesting a distinct line of evolution. The occurrence of 
