620 
cl vii. GRAMiNEiE (Stapf). [Echinochloa. 
pubescent zone above it or (in the uppermost leaves) the latter only 
present ; blades linear from a slightly rounded and constricted base, 
tapering to a fine point, 4-6 in. by 3-4 lin., flat, dark green, slightly 
flaccid, quite glabrous, rough upwards on bofih sides and along the 
margin, otherwise smooth, midrib slender, flat and whitish above, 
primary lateral nerves very indistinctly differentiated above, 3 or 4 
on each side. Panicle laterally exserted from the uppermost sheath 
and equalled or overtopped by its blade, subflexuous, linear-lanceolate 
in outline, very dense, obscurely or distinctly lobed, jubate from the 
numerous slender awns, 4-5 in. long ; axis almost completely hidden 
by the crowded branches, angular, scabrid at the angles ; branches 
irregularly approximate or fascicled, suberect, more or less flexuous, 
the longest about 1 in. by 2 lin. (excluding the awns), forming sessile 
very dense about 4-ranked simple false spikes ; rhachis slender, 
triquetrous, J lin. wide, with scaberulous angles, hispid-tomentose 
or setulose at the base ; pedicels mostly paired, very short, scaberu- 
lous, with minutely discoid tips. Spikelets very close, oblong to 
lanceolate-oblong, acuminate, 1J lin. long (excluding the awns), 
awned, pale green or tinged with vivid purple. Glumes thin, very 
sparingly and minutely hairy, finely nerved ; lower broadly ovate to 
ovate-oblong, acute or mucronulate, half the length of the spikelet, 
3- to sub-5-nerved ; upper corresponding in length and outline to 
the spikelet, produced into a fine scaberulous awn up to 3 lin. long, 
5-7-nerved. Lower floret barren : valve very similar to the upper 
glume, but 7-nerved and the awn up to over 6 lin. long ; valvule 
lanceolate-oblong, acute, distinctly shorter than the valve. Upper 
floret oblong, apiculate or mucronulate, moderately convex on the 
back, apiculus or mucro scaberulous, 1-1 J lin. long, whitish, polished ; 
valve and valvule papery-crustaceous. Grain broad-elliptic in 
outline, f lin. by nearly J lin. 
Mozambique Distr. Nyasaland : Nyika plateau ; Mwaremba, McClounie, 
20 ! 
Imperfectly known species. 
10. E. divaricata, Anderss. in Peters , Reise Mossamb. Rot. 549. A 
weak pale green tufted grass, \ ft. high. Culms divaricate, branched 
from the base. Leaf-sheaths glabrous, with yellowish nodes ; 
ligules 0 ; blades spreading, narrowly linear, 2-3 in. by 1-1 J lin., 
flat, glabrous except for a few tubercle-based cilia near the base, 
with slightly rough margins. Inflorescence of 4-7 divaricately 
spreading false spikes, J- in. distant and bare at the base ; axis 
angular, sulcate, glabrous ; rhachis of the spikes glabrous except for 
a very few hairs. Spikelets 4-ranked, sessile, ventricose-globose, 
glabrescent. Glumes unequal ; lower subrotund, clasping, obtuse 
or indistinctly mucronate, 3-nerved, finely hairy along the margins, 
upper as long as the spikelet, obtuse, dorsally very convex, 5-nerved, 
