606 
cl vn. GRAMiNEiE (Stapf). [EckinocMoa. 
awns, if any, up to 12 lin. long ; false spikes 
more or less nodding, loosely arranged in a 
secund panicle ; perennial or occasionally 
annual and then slender and meagre 8. E. stagnina. 
Spikelets oblong, lin. long (excluding the awns) ; 
awn of the upper glume 3 lin., of the lower 
floret up to over 6 lin. long, very fine ; false 
spikes in dense jubate panicles 9. E. jubata. 
1. E. obtusiflora, Staff. Annual (?), J-1J ft. high, scantily tufted. 
Culms geniculately ascending, slender, terete, about 2-noded, 
branched, glabrous, smooth. Leaf-sheaths terete, tight or at length 
loosened, finely striate, glabrous, smooth ; ligules a fine ciliolate rim; 
blades narrowly linear from an equally wide base, gently tapering to 
an acute point, 2-4 in. by 1-1J lin., flat, somewhat rigid, suberect, 
green, glabrous ; margins rough, midrib very slender, lateral nerves 
close but distinct (about 9 on each side of the midrib). Panicle long- 
exserted, erect, very narrow or spiciform, 1J-5 in. long ; axis very 
slender, triquetrous, almost smooth below, becoming rough along 
the angles upwards ; branches 2-5, solitary, erect and mostly 
appressed to the axis, distant by less or slightly more than their own 
length, rarely over 1 in. long, forming dense simple 2-4-ranked sub- 
secund sessile false spikes, 2J lin. wide ; rhachis very slender, flat- 
tened, subtriquetrous, J lin. wide, scabrid along the angles, with or 
without some long fine stiff hairs ; pedicels 2-nate, very short, 
scaberulous, tips subdiscoid. Spikelets crowded, elliptic in outline, 
very obtuse, 1J lin. long, very pale or brownish on the back, almost 
glabrous. Glumes membranous, faintly nerved except towards the 
scaberulous or scabrid tips, nerves not hispid ; lower very broadly 
ovate, obtuse to subacute, less than half the length of the spikelet, 
5-nerved, scaberulous upwards ; upper glume corresponding to the 
spikelet in length and outline, very concave, 5-nerved. Lower 
floret : valve very like the upper glume but flat or slightly 
depressed on the back ; valvule elliptic-oblong, obtuse with smooth 
keels slightly shorter than the valve ; anthers 1 lin. long. Upper 
floret Q, broadly ovate- or elliptic-oblong, with a minute slightly 
incurved apiculus, as long as the spikelet, whitish, then turning a pale 
reddish-brown, glossy with a pearly lustre, very finely striate under 
the lens ; valve and valvule subcoriaceous. 
Upper Guinea. Cameroons: by the Bogolo river, Miss M acleod, 91 ! Logone 
River, Macleod, 151 a ! * 
2. E. Holubii A Staff. Perennial, 2-3 ft. high. Culms erect or 
geniculate from a slender rhizome, terete, glabrous, 4-5-noded, 
sheathed all along or the upper internodes exserted. Leaves 
glabrous ; sheaths rather loose, terete, striate, bases of the lowest 
persistent, breaking up into fibres ; ligules a fringe of fine hairs ; 
blades linear, scarcely narrowed or constricted at the base, long- 
tapering to a fine point, 4-10 in. by 2-3 lin., suberect, firm, flexuous, 
