626 
CL VII. GRAM1NE7E (Stapf). 
[. Acroceras . 
apiculate, over 2| lin. long, smooth, pale ; valve and valvule 
coriaceous, apiculus laterally compressed, obtuse, minutely rough, 
margin delicately ciliate below it, tip of valvule subcucullate and 
slightly recurved and reversedly ciliolate on the indexed margin ; 
anthers over 1 lin. long. Grain oblong-lanceolate in outline, plano- 
convex, white ; hilum filiform, as long as the grain ; , embryo less 
than half the length of the grain. — P. zizanioides, var. angu&tatum 
Stapf ex A. Cheval. Sudania, ,32 (name), 81. 
Upper Guinea. Senegambia : Casamance ; Zignimber, Chevalier, 2188 !: 
French Guinea: Batting Valley, Pobeguin, 1713 bis ! French Sudan : Middle 
Niger; Koulikoro, Chevalier, 2187 !o Segou, Lecard, 246 ! * 
North Central. Upper Oubangui : Mbou-Kou-Griko, Chevalier, 5574 ! 
Nile Land. Jur : Ghattas’ Great Seriba, Schweinfurth, 2330 ! 
4. A. basicladum, Stapf. Annual, up to 2J ft. high, from a long 
prostrate much-branched base, forming loose leafy tufts from which 
the flowering culms rise. Culms quite glabrous and smooth, slender, 
terete, weak, many-noded, the prostrate base bare owing to the 
early decay of its sheaths, its internodes 1-2 in. long, copiously 
rooting from the nodes, the numerous branches ascending, of very 
variable height, from a few inches to 2J ft. long, apparently all 
flowering, their lower internodes sheathed, short to very short at the 
base, increasing upwards in long culms to 5 in. and more, and then 
long-exserted. Leaf-sheaths subherbaceous, soft, loose or the upper 
tight, terete, ciliate, otherwise glabrous and smooth ; ligule none or 
represented by an obscure minutely ciliolate line ; blades linear- 
lanceolate to linear from a rounded semi-amplexicaul base, tapering 
to an acute point, 1-3 in. by 2-3J lin. or the upper of the longest 
culms linear and up to 6 in. by 2 lin., flat, flaccid, green, glabrous, 
margins cartilaginous, smooth below, scaberulous upwards, midrib 
very fine, primary lateral nerves about 3 on each side, faintly distinct 
on the lower side only, with 3 secondary nerves between them con- 
nected by mostly very inconspicuous cross-veins. Panicles erect, 
straight, those of the longest culms long-exserted, 3 to over 9 in. long, 
of 2-5, rarely more, straight' usually much spreading secund often 
interrupted spiciform branches, very distant on a very slender 
semiterete smooth or upwards more or less triquetrous and scaberu- 
lous or scabrid common axis ; branches subvillosulous at the very 
base, the longest from half to two-thirds the length of the panicle, 
triquetrous, with scaberulous or downwards almost smooth angles, 
a flat or subconvex back, up to J lin. wide, and an acutely keeled 
face, bearing at , the nodes (4-6 lin. distant) from the base, more 
rarely from above it, mostly paired spikelets ; pedicels stiff, angular,, 
scaberulous, with truncate tips, one very short, the other 2-3 lin. 
long. Spikelets appressed to the rhachis, linear-lanceolate, subulate- 
apiculate, 2J lin. long, pale green with darker tips, quite glabrous. 
Glumes thinly membranous, finely or obscurely nerved ; lower 
