610 
clvii. gramineje (Stapf). [Echinochloa. 
Mozambique Distr. Zanzibar Island, Last ! German East Africa : in culti- 
vated land near Tanga, Holst, 2030 ! Nyasaland : between Kondowe and 
Karonga, 2000-6000 ft., Whyte, 355 ! Karonga, Scott ! lower Shire valley near 
Katunga, Scott ! and Milauri, Scott ! Rhodesia : Victoria Falls, Rogers, 5575 ! 
Widely spread throughout the tropics and the warm -temperate regions of 
the world, probably of African and Indian origin and often occurring as a 
weed. 
A valuable fodder grass. P. frumentaceum, Roxb., extensively grown in 
India as a grain crop, is evidently descended from it. The spikelets vary from 
hispidulous to almost glabrous and from acute to cuspidulate or (rarely) dis- 
tinctly cuspidate, but I do not find the characters correlated with each other 
or with other characters. A form with dark-barred blades was described as 
Panicum zonale by Gussone, but occurs only rarely in Africa. 
4. E. Crus-Galli, P. Beauv. Agrost. 161. Annual ; 1-3 ft. high. 
Culms geniculately ascending, slender to moderately stout, branched 
below, compressed towards the base, glabrous and smooth, internodes 
enclosed or exserted. Leaf-sheaths somewhat loose, the lower often 
compressed, whitish and thin, the upper subherbaceous, all smooth, 
glabrous and striate except the basal which are pubescent above their 
insertion ; ligules 0, junction of blade and sheath glabrous inside, 
marked by a brown zone ; blades linear from a scarcely narrowed base, 
tapering to an acute point, 3-10 in. by 3 to over 6 lin., flat, 
subflaccid, glabrous, more or less dull greyish-green, smooth or 
scaberulous below, particularly towards the tip ; margins finely 
cartilaginous, scabrid to almost smooth, midrib very slender, lateral 
nerves close, not differentiated. Panicles erect, strict or flexuous, 
at length exserted, 3-8 in. long ; axis triquetrous, scabrid ; branches 
few to about 15, solitary or 2-nate, suberect or spreading, distant 
except the uppermost or all more or less approximate forming a 
“ lobed ” panicle, the lower 1-2 \ in. long, forming rather stout dense 
(2J-4 lin. diam.) mostly many-ranked simple or subcomposite 
subsecund sessile false spikes ; rhachis triquetrous, scabrid, coarsely 
bristly, particularly near the nodes ; pedicels fascicled or 2-nate, 
very short, up to J lin. long, scabrid, bristly at the base, tips sub- 
discoid. Spikelets crowded, ovate-elliptic in outline, acute, cuspidate 
or awned, 1J-1J lin. long, greenish or tinged with purple. Lower 
glume membranous, very broadly ovate, clasping at the base, 
obtuse to subcuspidate, J lin. long, 5-nerved, scaberulous ; upper 
glume herbaceous-membranous, very broadly ovate-oblong, concave, 
acute, cuspidate, as long as the spikelet, 5- or (near the tip) 7-nerved, 
rigidly pubescent between the scabrid and spinulose nerves. Lower 
floret barren : valve similar to the upper glume, but flat or depressed 
on the back, cuspidate or produced into a scabrid often long flexuous 
awn, 7-nerved (at least at the tip) ; valvule elliptic, shorter by a 
quarter than the valve, keels scaberulous upwards. Upper floret ^ ; 
elliptic-ovate in outline, cuspidate, over 1 lin. long, whitish or 
yellowish, polished : valve and valvule subcoriaceous ; anthers 
oblong, scarcely | lin. long. Grain broad-elliptic in outline, J lin. 
long. — T. Nees, Gen. FI. Germ. Monocot. i. t. 21 ; Reichenb. Ic. FI. 
