Panicum .] clvii. gramineje (Stapf). 661 
minutely hairy or almost glabrous, margins finely cartilaginous and 
scaberulous, midrib very slender, whitish, primary lateral nerves 
between them, these connected by numerous fine transverse veins, 
visible in transmitted light or sometimes owing to their being raised 
in the dried plant. Panicles partly enclosed (permanently ?) in the 
uppermost sheath, 4-5 in. long, divided to the third or fourth degree ; 
common axis slender, like all its divisions angular and scaberulous 
or scabrid except downwards, lowest and intermediate internodes 
up to 1 in. long ; primary branches solitary, sub erect, filiform, 
flexuous or wavy, suberect, loosely divided from the base, its branch- 
lets more or less appressed, 1-1J in. long, bearing 5-2 spikelets ; 
pedicels J-2 lin. long, tips minutely discoid. Spikelets ovate- 
lanceolate, acute, 1J-1J lin. long, green or variously tinged with 
purple, quite glabrous. Glumes very unequal ; lower more or less 
hyaline, rounded, obtuse or subacute, finely 1 -nerved or nerveless, 
about one-third the length of the spikelet ; upper of the size and 
outline of the spikelet with the tip involute upwards and thereby 
apparently acutely acuminate, membranous, 5-nerved, nerves 
prominent upwards, the outer joining the inner side-nerves below 
the tip. Lower floret : valve very similar to the upper glume if 
not slightly shorter and narrower ; valvule oblong, obtuse, almost 
as long as the valve ; anthers f lin. long (mature ?). Upper floret fcjj, 
oblong, acute, 1J lin. long, whitish, polished ; valve and valvule 
tough, papery to subcoriaceous ; anthers almost 1 lin. long. 
Nile Land. Uganda : Mau forest, 8000 ft., Scott Elliot , 6922 ! 
10. P. spongiosum, Staff. Perennial, up to 3 ft. high, from a 
short rhizome. Culms erect, stout (up to 3 lin. diam.) and very 
spongy up to beyond the middle, then slender, terete, very smooth 
and glabrous, prominently striate, simple, about 7-noded, nodes 
enclosed or shortly exserted. Leaf-sheaths loose, terete, striate, 
somewhat spongy, the lowest appressedly hairy all over, one or two 
of the following hairy at the nodes only, otherwise like the upper 
quite glabrous and smooth, the basal finally decaying ; ligule a very 
narrow densely ciliolate rim ; blades very narrow, linear, very 
gradually tapering from the base, which is as wide as or narrower 
(lower leaves) than the mouth of the sheath, to a blunt tip, up to 1 ft. 
long by 1J lin., more or less convolute, more or less spongy, par- 
ticularly towards the base, glabrous, smooth, midrib rather wide 
but slightly raised below and very distinct, lateral nerves fine and 
close above, a few of them more or less differentiated below as 
primary nerves. Panicles enclosed with their base in the uppermost 
sheath, oblong, over 3 in. long, divided to the third degree ; common 
axis slender, angular, filiform upwards, like all its divisions quite 
smooth and glabrous ; internodes 5-8 lin. long with a few which are 
much shorter intermixed ; primary branches finely filiform, solitary, 
very loosely divided from the base (or the lowest entire up to 9 or 
