Echinochloa.] clvii. gramine^ (Stapf). 607 
more or less glaucous, smooth except upwards, margins finely carti- 
laginous, smooth or scabrid, midrib very slender, primary lateral 
nerves 2 or 3 on each side, very fine or inconspicuously differentiated. 
Panicles laterally exserted from the uppermost sheath, very narrow, 
usually interrupted, 4-6 in. long ; axi's slender, compressed with 
upwards scabrid angles, glabrous ; branches 6-8, erect and appressed 
to the axis, distant by their own length or more, the lower J-f in. 
long, the uppermost much shorter, forming subsecund compact 
4- ranked sessile false spikes ; rhachis slender, slightly wavy, trique- 
trous, scaberulous, villous at the base; pedicels 2-3-nate, 
extremely short with discoid tips. Spikelets oblong, subacute or 
cuspidate, 1J-1| lin. long, pale or variegated with purple. Glumes 
very thin, finely and appressedly pubescent between the nerves ; 
lower broad-ovate, cuspidate, about half the length of the spikelet, 
5 - nerved, ciliate on the sides ; upper oblong, as long as the spikelets, 
very concave with short slightly compressed tips, 5- or (at the tip) 
7-nerved, nerves loosely or minutely hispid, margins very shortly 
woolly. Lower floret : valve very like the upper glume ; valvule 
subequal, keels scabrid upwards ; anthers J-f lin. long. Upper 
floret as long as the lower, elliptic-oblong, shortly acuminate or 
cuspidate, light straw-coloured : valve and valvule subcoriaceous, 
the valve strongly convex on the back ; anthers slightly over l lin. 
long. — Panicum Holubii, Stapf in Dyer, LI. Cap. vii. 394. 
Mozambique Distr Rhodesia : on the Zambesi, Holub ! 
Also in Bechuanaland, the Transvaal and in the Amatola Mountains. 
3. E. colona, Link, Eort. Berol. ii. 209. Annual, in small tufts, 
up to 2 ft. high. Culms rather slender, erect or geniculately ascend- 
ing, branched mostly in the lower part only, soft and very com- 
pressible, glabrous and smooth, internodes more or less exserted. 
Leaves glabrous, rarely with some minute hairs on the blades ; lower 
sheaths somewhat loose, more or less compressed, thin and (the 
basal) whitish, upper tighter and subherbaceous, all smooth ; 
ligules 0, junction of blade and sheath glabrous inside ; blades 
linear from an obscurely constricted base, tapering to a slender 
acute point, 3-12 in. by 2-3 lin., flat, subflaccid, more or less glaucous 
or dull green, sometimes with black cross-bands, delicately pruinose, 
margins slightly rough or smooth downwards, midrib very slender, 
lateral nerves close and usually not differentiated (rarely 3-4 primary 
nerves distinguishable). Panicles erect, mostly straight, at length 
more or less exserted, 2-5 in. long, very narrow; axis slender, 
sulcate and smooth below, upwards becoming more or less trique- 
trous and rough along the angles ; branches usually over 6 to many, 
solitary, rarely 2-nate, erect and often appressed to the axis or 
sometimes obliquely spreading, distant by much less than their own 
length or the lowest sometimes by their own length, rarely more, 
the lower 1-J in. long, the following decreasing very gradually, 
