Urochloa .] 
CLVII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
591 
obtuse. Culms ascending from a geniculate and occasionally rooting 
base, rarely erect, rather stout, up to over 3 (to 7 according to L. 
Scott) ft. high, glabrous or loosely hirsute below the nodes, simple oi 
sparingly branched below or in tall specimens also higher up with long 
slender branches, 4- to many-noded, the lowest internodes often 
compressed. Leaf-sheaths rather tight, pale, striate, more or less 
loosely hirsute with tubercle-based hairs, or glabrous and smooth 
except the ciliate outer margins, nearly always densely and spread- 
ingly bearded at the nodes ; ligules reduced to a densely long- 
ciliate rim ; blades linear to linear-lanceolate from a broad semi- 
amplexicaul base, long-tapering to a slender point, 6-10 in. by 5-8 lin., 
flat, more or less flaccid, quite glabrous and smooth except at the rough 
usually quite eciliate margins, or loosely hirsute, midrib slender, 
prominent below, primary lateral nerves up to 7 on each side, very 
slender. Inflorescence of 5-10 (rarely fewer or more) erect or sub- 
erect straight or slightly curved or flexuous sessile or subsessile 
spiciform secund racemes ; common axis slender, 2-3J in. long, 
angular, subterete below, then adaxially hollowed out or flattened 
upwards, more or less pubescent. Racemes very dense, 2-seriate, 
simple, 2-3J in. long, solitary, rather evenly distributed ; rhachis 
wavy, flat and green on the back, J-f lin. wide ; midrib rather stout, 
forming on the face an acute keel, flanked by the herbaceous scabrid 
margins, villous at the base, glabrous upwards, internodes about 
1 lin. long ; pedicels solitary or the lowest with a rudimentary usually 
barren secondary pedicel at the base, reduced to short stout stumps, 
bearing 1-3 long spreading fine hairs below the thickened tips. 
Spikelets close, subimbricate, elliptic-ovate to elliptic, subulate- 
acuminate, about 2 lin. long, rarely longer, pale greenish. Glumes 
somewhat dissimilar, membranous ; lower elliptic-oblong, obtuse or 
subemarginate, 1J lin. long, flat, quite glabrous like the remainder 
of the spikelet, except the minutely ciliolate margins, 3-nerved, side- 
nerves inarching and anastomosing with the midnerve below the 
apex ; upper glume corresponding in size and outline to the spikelet, 
5-nerved with few transverse veins above the middle. Lower floret 
: valve very similar to the upper glume, but flattened on the 
back, 5-nerved, the side-nerves approximate to the firmer flexure ; 
valvule broad-elliptic, acuminate, slightly shorter than the valve ; 
anthers § lin. long. Upper floret broad to rotundate-elliptic, 
1J lin. long, yellowish ; valve transversely rugose towards the 
margins, otherwise like the valvule minutely granular ; mucro 
\ lin. long. Grain broad-elliptic, dorsally much flattened, greyish. — * 
Panicum geminatum, Schweinf. in Bull. Herb. Boiss. ii. App. ii. 19 ; 
partly, not of Forsk.. 
Nile Land. Eritrea : Dogali, Schweinf urtli, 258 ! 
Mozambique Distr. Portuguese East Africa : Msalu River, Allen , 144 ! 
Shupanga, Kirk ! near Moramballa, Kirk ! between Lupata and Tette, Kirk ! 
and without precise locality, Allen, 1 ! Nyasaland : Chirimbo, below Elephant 
