636 
clvii. gramineje (Stapf). [Ojplismenus. 
Nile Land. Eritrea : Amasen ; Dongollo, near Ghinda, Pappi, 4536 ; 
along the Fil-Fil torrent, Pappi, 5426 ; on mount Faghenat, 6500-8200 ft., 
Pappi, 5326. Socotra : forming turf along streams in Wadi Digal, 1900 ft., 
Schweinfurth, 587 ! British East Africa : bush near Lincoru, 7000 ft., Bummer, 
1640 ! 
Mozambique Distr. Zanzibar Island, Last ! German East Africa : Usambara, 
in virgin forest near Lutindi, Holst , 3279 ! Nyasaland : Namasi, Cameron ! 
Portuguese East Africa : in damp woods near Shupanga, Kirk ! 
Also in Madagascar and the Mascarenes and widely distributed throughout 
tropical and subtropical Asia, Australia and Polynesia. Here too, as in 
O. hirtellus, a wide range of variation, apparently of the same character, is 
noticeable, although it does not seem to lead to cases of such extreme reduction, 
nor to the appearance of regionally prevailing or exclusive forms. 
3. 0. Burmannii, P. Beauv. Agrost. 54. Annual, np to 1J ft. high. 
Culms very slender, ascending front a long decumbent or rambling 
branched and rooting base, the internodes of which are often strongly 
compressed or at least very compressible, simple or more often 
branched upwards with the branches short and barren or flowering, 
glabrous or more or less hairy, often along a line adaxial to the 
supporting leaf. Leaf-sheaths somewhat loose, prominently striate, 
ciliate along the margins and pubescent at the nodes, otherwise 
glabrous or more or less spreadingly hairy, short or long ; ligules 
very short, truncate, ciliate ; blades lanceolate from a distinctly 
constricted and slightly rounded base, acutely . acuminate, £-2 in. 
by 2-6 lin., flat, thin and soft, dull pale green, loosely to very sparingly 
beset with fine rather long white hairs, not rough, margins slightly 
scaberulous upwards, midrib very slender, primary lateral nerves 
2-3 on each side, but generally hardly differentiated from the 
secondary nerves, transverse veins very short and often obscure. 
Inflorescence more or less secund, of 3-8 very dense pale spike-like 
racemes on a flexuous slender semiterete or upwards triquetrous 
glabrous or finely pubescent axis 1-3 in. long, sometimes softly 
ciliate along its lateral angles ; lower racemes distant by more than 
their own length (J-l in.), erect or oblique, linear, the longest rarely 
over f in. long, the upper or all often much shorter ; rhachis usually 
terminated by a spikelet, straight, triquetrous, dorsally flat, pale 
green, fringed with fine almost silky hairs, internodes J lin. long ; 
pedicels 2-nate or solitary, reduced to very short truncate stumps, 
or up to \ lin. long, with long hairs like the cilia of the rhachis. 
Spikelets contiguous, oblong-lanceolate, rarely much over 1 lin. long, 
pale green, one of a pair often imperfect. Glumes subequal (the 
upper slightly longer), f-J lin. long, thinly membranous to sub- 
hyaline, oblong in profile, with pale capillary slightly rough awns 
4- 1 lin. long from a minute notch, ciliate and more or less (sometimes 
very sparingly) pubescent, the lower narrower, sub-3-nerved, upper 
5- 7-nerved with faint side-nerves. Lower floret barren: valve 
lanceolate-oblong in profile, acuminate, produced into a fine very 
short capillary awn, 7-nerved, ciliate upwards and finely pubescent 
above the middle ; valvule 0. Upper floret oblong, acute, 1 lin. 
