662 
CLVII. GRAMINE^J (S’tapf). 
[ Panicum . 
10 lin.), longest 2-1J in. long; secondary branches capillary, the 
lower 10-5 lin. long, bearing 4-2 approximate spikelets from the 
middle; pedicels \ to (the terminal) 2 lin. long, tips slightly thickened. 
Spikelets oblong, obtuse or subobtuse, subterete and somewhat turgid, 
1J lin. long, green, glabrous. Glumes very unequal, very thinly 
membranous ; lower ovate, obtuse, faintly 1 -nerved, up to one-third 
of the spikelet ; upper of the length and outline of the spikelet, very 
finely 7-nerved. Lower floret £ : valve similar to the upper glume, 
9-nerved ; valvule slightly shorter, oblong, acute ; anthers f lin. 
long. Upper floret §, oblong, subacute, over 2J lin. long, whitish, 
polished ; valve and valvule thinly subcoriaceous, the former 
pubescent at the tips. 
Lower Guinea. Belgian Congo : Stanley Pool Distr. (?) ; Bugumu, Vanderyst , 
43221 ' — 
11. P. brazzavillense, Franch. Contrib. FI. Congo Frang. 33 (in 
Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Autun, viii. 341). Perennial, 9-12 in. high, 
compactly tufted with extravaginal innovations ; cataphylls firm, 
pale, glabrous, very smooth. Culms erect, very slender, terete, 
simple, 1-2-noded with the (upper) node at or below the middle, 
glabrous. Leaves crowded at the base ; sheaths terete, tight, firm, 
minutely auricled, quite glabrous and smooth, prominently striated, 
the basal 1-1J in. long, long-persistent and coating the culms and 
innovations ; ligule reduced to a ciliolate rim ; blades of the basal 
leaves setaceous, slightly blunt, terete or laterally somewhat com- 
pressed, deeply channelled, 5-8 lin. by up to over J lin. across, of the 
culm-leaves much shorter (down to less than 1 in.), rigid or sub- 
flexuous, wiry, glabrous, smooth except along the margins, midrib 
and lateral nerves quite obscure outside. Panicle contracted or more 
or less open, up to 1J in. by 4-10 lin., divided to the third degree ; 
common axis filiform, terete or subterete, smooth, lowest internodes 
up to \ in. long ; lower primary branches usually divided from the 
base or close to it, forming scanty imperfect false whorls, the longest 
equalling three-quarters of the panicle, subcapillary, smooth ; 
ultimate divisions finely capillary, flexuous ; pedicels 1-2 lin. long, 
tips minutely discoid. Spikelets broad- elliptic in outline, acute to 
subacute or apiculate, about f lin. long, pale green, here and there 
with a bronzy metallic lustre or dark violet, glabrous. Glumes 
thinly membranous, very concave, finely and somewhat prominently 
nerved, broad-oblong in profile, shortly acute or apiculate, the lower 
three-quarters the length of the lower floret, 3-nerved, the upper as 
long as or almost as long as the lower floret, 5-nerved. Lower 
floret ; valve very similar to the upper glume ; valvule slightly 
shorter, acute, keels almost quite smooth ; anthers § lin. long. 
Upper floret g, ovate in outline, acute or subacute,- k lin. by 4 lin. 
or slightly larger ; valve and valvule thinly papery, whitish, smooth 
or very sparingly and minutely verrucose ; anthers — lin. long. — 
