632 
CL VII. GKAMINEJE (Stapf). 
[Oplismenus* 
Eacemes distant usually by more than their own length (the lower 
often by 1 in. or more), erect or obliquely spreading, linear, decreasing 
upwards, 12-13 lin. long, or all the racemes short and reduced to 
2-3-spiculate clusters or solitary spikelets ; rhachis usually terminated 
by a solitary spikelet, straight, triquetrous, dorsally flat, green or 
greyish-green from very minute appressed hairs, frequently fringed 
with tubercle-based bristles, tomentose or hispid at the base, inter- 
nodes from less than J to 1 lin. long ; pedicels 2-nate or solitary, very 
short and stout with truncate tips and usually a few bristles. Spike- 
lets contiguous, ovate-oblong, 1J-2 lin. long (excluding the awns), 
green to greyish-green, minutely bearded at the base ; if clustered, 
then one or several of a cluster more or less reduced (in extreme cases, 
to awns). Glumes subequal (the upper slightly longer), 1-1 J- in. 
long, thinly herbaceous, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate in profile, 
produced into filiform subobtuse smooth upwards more or less 
viscous and purplish awns, hairy at least near the margins, rarely 
quite glabrous ; the lower acute, 5-nerved, with the nerves near the 
margin, and an awn usually from 3-5 lin. long, in weak specimens 
or in the lower and often somewhat arrested spikelets of a raceme or 
cluster only 1J-2J lin. long, or (the other extreme) occasionally up 
to over 6 lin. long ; upper subobtuse, 7-5-nerved with an awn 1-2 lin. 
long. Lower floret barren, rarely equalling the spikelet : valve 
similar to the glumes, with a minutely notched tip, membranous, 
mucronate or very shortly awned, 7-11 -nerved ; valvule linear, 
hyaline, more or less reduced. Upper floret oblong, acute or 
subcuspidate, 1-1J lin. long, whitish to brownish, polished : valve 
and valvule subcoriaceous, the former 7-nerved. Anthers pale 
pink, f-f- lin. long. Stigmas long, red. . Grain f-1 lin. long, 
convex on the back, almost flat on the face, with an oblong 
hilum, one-third the length of the grain. — Eoem. & Schult. Syst. 
Yeg. ii. 481 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 140 ; K. Schum. in Engl. PfL 
Ost-Afr. C. 104 ; Hitchcock in Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. xii. 229, xvii. 
255 ; Hitchcock & Chase in Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb, xviii. 344. 
0. africanus, P. Beauv. FI. Owar. ii. 15, t. 68, fig. 1, and Agrost. 54, t. 
xi. fig. 3 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 140 ; Nees, FI. Afr. Austr. 60 ; Durand 
& Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 771, and Etudes FI. Congo, 325 ; Hack, 
in Bolet. Soc. Brot. v. 211 ; K. Schum. l.c. ; Franch. Contr. FI. 
Congo Fran<y in Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Autun. viii. 362 (reprint 50) ;. 
Stapf in Dyer, FI. Cap. vii. 416, including vars. capensis and simplex ;. 
De Wild. & Durand, Contr. FI. Congo, fasc. ii. 73, and in Bull. Herb. 
Boiss. 2 me ser. i. 61 ; Eendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 184, and in J ourn. 
Linn. Soc. Bot. xl. 224 ; De Wild. Etudes FI. Bas- et Moyen- Congo, L 
11; ii. 12, and Miss. ]S. Laurent, 203; Th. &Hel. Durand, Syll. FI. CongoL 
636 ; Eyles in Trans. E. Soc. S. Afr. v. 302 . 0. loliaceus , H. B. .& K. 
Nov. Gen. et Sp. i. 106 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 140, partly ; Nees, Agrost. 
Bras. 266. 0. setarius , Eoem. & Schult. Syst. ii. 481 ; Poir. Encycl. 
iv. 741 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 139 ; Small, FI. South-east. U.S. 84 ; 
