Echinochloa .] 
CLVII. GRAMINE.E (Stapf). 
621 
with a hyaline subciliate margin. Lower floret ; valve similar 
to the upper glume, acute, ciliate ; valvule membranous-hyaline. 
Upper floret <^, acute ; valve convex on the back, cartilaginous ; 
valvule of similar substance, embraced by the valve.— P. Echinochloa , 
Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 748. 
Mozambique Distr. Portuguese East Africa : on damp plains near Tette, 
Peters. 
This may be a species of Brachiaria. 
68a. ACROCERAS, Stapf. 
Spikelets ovate-oblong to oblong, bluntly and callously crested, 
subterete, falling entire from the pedicels, usually 2-nate or upwards 
solitary, more rarely fascicled, secund and abaxial on the angular 
rhachis of racemosely arranged mostly loose simple or sometimes 
compound spiciform racemes ; lower floret or barren, with a well- 
developed valvule ; upper floret Glumes subsimilar, mem- 
branous, pale below, greenish upwards or greenish all over, with a 
callous dark green laterally compressed terminal crest which is the 
end of a short subterminal keel, the lower usually shorter, more or 
less ovate-lanceolate and 3-nerved, the upper oblong, 5-nerved. 
Lower floret equalling the upper glume, or almost so : valve very 
similar to the upper glume ; valvule equal to the valve or slightly 
shorter, hyaline, finely 2-keeled. Upper floret : valve subcoriaceous, 
smooth, oblong, very obscurely keeled or broadly rounded on the 
back, with a blunt callous green laterally compressed apical crest, 
narrowly involute with firm margins, faintly 5-nerved ; valvule 
equalling the valve and similar in substance, with rounded keels, 
each ending in a minute more or less recurved callous tip. Lodicules 
2, cuneate, fleshy. Stamens 3. Styles distinct ; stigmas large, 
plumose, dark, exserted laterally above the middle. Grain tightly 
enclosed by the hardened valve and valvule, oblong, dorsally flat, 
venfcrally convex ; hilum filiform, as long as or usually much shorter 
than the grain, rarely punctiform. Embryo obovate, short. — 
Perennial or annual, usually with a long prostrate and rooting base ; 
blades lanceolate to linear, often from a subamplexicaul or amplexi- 
caul base with very numerous short more or less distinct transverse 
veins ; ligules reduced to a ciliolate rim or quite obscure ; panicles 
of distant slender secund spiciform or racemiform branches, mostly 
bearing spikelets from the base or near it ; spikelets quite glabrous 
and smooth. 
Species about 9 in the tropics of both hemispheres. 
In the course of working out the African species of Panicum it became manifest 
that the species referred here could not be retained in Panicum as understood 
in this work. The uncertainty of the affinity was already recognised by Hitch- 
cock and Chase, who in their account of the North American species of Panicum 
