629 
C ommelinidium . ] clvii. gramine^ (Stapf). 
900 ft., Hens, C, 101 ! Angola : Golungo Alto; in dense primitive forest near 
Cungulungulo, Welwitsch, 7174 ! 7208 ! 
According to Welwitsch this grass grows socially in the shade of primitive 
woods and disappears with cultivation. 
(_ 
2. G. g’abunense^tap/. Up to over 3 ft. high. Culms ascending, 
emitting aerial roots, terete, striate, fistular, many-noded, simple, 
upwards sparingly pubescent, leafy all along. Leaf-sheaths tight, 
terete, less than half the length of the internodes, ciliolate along the 
margins and more or less bearded at the mouth, pubescent upwards, 
otherwise glabrous ; ligules short, rotundate, membranous, glabrous ; 
blades spreading, lanceolate-elliptic to elliptic from a rounded much 
constricted (almost petioloid) base, acuminate, 3-4 in. by 1J-1J in., 
flat, firm, dark green, scaberulous with scattered small bristles above, 
glabrous below, midrib very slender, lateral primary nerves 5-6 on 
each side with 6-7 secondary in the interval, all very fine ; cross- 
veins delicate. Panicle broad-ovate, compound, open, rather loose, 
7-10 in. long ; axis terete, striate, obscurely puberulous ; branches 
spirally arranged, pubescent in the axils, angular, scaberulous or 
hairy, divided almost from the base ; branchlets bearing 3-5 spike- 
lets ; pedicels about 1 lin. long. Spikelets lanceolate, 2J-2f lin. 
long, greenish or suffused with violet. Glumes membranous, acute, 
5-nerved, glabrous except for the minutely puberulous tips ; the 
lower ovate, half the length of the spikelet, the upper elliptic- 
lanceolate, as long as the spikelet. Lower floret imperfectly £ : 
valve similar to the upper glume, but obtuse ; valvule linear, obtuse, 
shorter by one-third ; anthers seen minute, sterile. Upper floret 
lanceolate, with a subacute densely white-puberulous tip, obscurely 
keeled, whitish ; valve and valvule coriaceous. — P. gahunense, 
Hack, in Yerhandl. Bot. Yer. Brandenb. xxxi. 70 ; Durand & 
Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 750. 
Lower Guinea. Gaboon : Sibange Farm, in a dry river bed, Biittner, 555. 
The description is taken entirely from Hackel, l.c. The large panicle and the 
glabrous under side of the leaf -blades seem to distinguish this species from both 
its congeners, whilst the nervation of the glumes (5-nerved instead of 3) adds 
another palpable character to distinguish it especially from C. mayumbense. 
3. 0. nervosum, Stapf. Perennial, rising to over 1 ft. Culms 
ascending from a prostrate or rambling base, emitting long aerial 
roots from the nodes, many-noded, upwards simple or branched ; 
upper branches (if any) short, slender, terete, striate, each node with a 
line of pubescence in the median plane of the supporting leaf or at 
length glabrescent. Leaf-sheaths shorter, or the upper as long as or 
longer than the internodes, tight, terete, striate, densely ciliate along 
the margins, cilia very long towards the mouth, otherwise spreadingly 
pubescent all over ; ligules truncate, stiffly membranous, ciliate, up 
to § lin. long ; blades obliquely and broadly ovate- or oblong- 
lanceolate from a much constricted disarticulating (?) base, acutely 
