Panicum .] 
CLVII. GRAMINE^ (Stapf). 
655 
internodes and pushed aside by the branches, the uppermost up to 
almost 3 in. long, slightly inflated ; ligule reduced to a line of short 
cilia ; blades linear-lanceolate from a rounded base, acutely 
acuminate, 1J-2J in. by 3-4J lin., flat, very flaccid, green, finely 
hirsute on both sides and along the margins, hairs (particularly the 
marginal) tubercle-based, midrib very slender, primary lateral nerves 
3 on each side, very fine, distinct below only. Panicles long- 
exserted, ovate to oblong in outline, open and very loose, more or 
less flaccid, 2-2 J in. by 1J in., divided to the second or third degree ; 
common axis filiform, terete, with scattered gland-tipped hairs, 
otherwise like all its divisions glabrous and smooth, internodes 
8-5 lin. long, here and there with a much shorter one intermixed ; 
primary branches capillary, spreading, flexuous, the lower about 
1 in. long, very loosely divided from the base, its divisions representing 
paired or upwards solitary pedicels, 1J-4J lin. long, with slightly 
thickened truncate tips. Spikelets oblong, obtuse or subacute, 
slightly turgid, 2 lin. long, pale green, glabrous. Glumes very 
unequal, thinly membranous, slightly rough and finely nerved ; 
lower very broad, truncate-obtuse, 9—11 -nerved with the nerve- 
tips joined by transverse venules ; upper of the length and outline 
of the spikelet, 9-nerved. Lower floret barren : valve very similar 
to upper glume ; valvule as long as valve or shorter, thinly hyaline, 
oblong, subacute, with softly ciliate keels and narrow flaps. Upper 
floret oblong, subacute, If lin. long, whitish ; valve and valvule 
papery, the valve finely 9-nerved with the nerves joined by trans- 
verse venules close to the pubescent tip ; anthers over | lin. long. 
Mozambique Distr. German East Africa : Unyamwezi ; Mikinga (4° S. Lat.), 
3800 ft., Grant ! 
6. P. maximum, Jacq. Ic. i. 2, t. 13; Collect, i. 76. Perennial, 
up to over 10 ft. high, densely tufted on a short sometimes very stout 
rhizome covered with the appressedly hairy remainders of cataphylls ; 
innovations mostly intravaginal. Culms erect or geniculate-sub- 
erect, usually stout (up to over 3 lin. in diam.), 3-4-noded, simple or 
sparingly branched with the branches erect, terete or compressed 
below, usually quite glabrous and smooth, more rarely more or less 
hirsute and rough from the tubercular hair-bases. Leaves glabrous 
or more or less softly hairy or coarsely hirsute with tubercle-based 
hairs ; sheaths rather firm, the lower compressed, the others terete 
and tight, more or less striate, often bearded at the mouth and usually 
so at the nodes, beards silky, very variable in length and density, 
rarely the nodes quite glabrous ; ligule membranous, very short, 
ciliolate, usually with dense hairs from behind it ; blades linear from 
an equally wide or very gradually narrowed and shortly contracted 
base, long-tapering to a fine (sometimes convolute and filiform) 
point, J-2 ft. by 2-9 or occasionally even 12 lin., flat, margins 
scaberulous to spinulously scabrid, midrib prominent below and 
