Panicum .] 
CLVII. GRAMINE^I (Stapf). 
677 
widened flaps ; anthers almost f lin. long. Upper floret oblong, 
subacute, £ lin. long, whitish or greyish, very glossy and smooth ; 
valve and valvule thinly crustaceous. 
Nile Land. Uganda or British East Africa: 2-7° South Lat., without precise 
locality, Hannington ! 
39. P phragmitoides, Staff ex Cheval. Sudania, 74, 76 ( name 
only). Perennial, 3 to over 6 (or more ?) ft. high. Innovations 
extravaginal with short firm brown glabrous cataphylls ; rhizome 
short. Culms erect, terete, 1J-2J- lin. in diam., about 4-noded, 
simple, glabrous. Leaf-sheaths terete, rather tight or the lower at 
length slipping off the stem, mostly very long (up to 1 ft.), firm, 
strongly striate, glabrous or more or less hirsute upwards ; ligule 
reduced to a narrow long-ciliate rim ; blades linear from an equally 
wide or somewhat narrowed base, long-tapering to a slender point, 
flat, rather firm, from 1 to almost 2 ft. long, 5-10 lin. wide, glabrous or 
hirsute towards the base, margins scabrid or downwards rigidly 
ciliate, midrib not very stout, shallowly channelled above, lateral 
nerves slender and close, very marked, the primary 5-9 on each side. 
Panicle large, loose, often over 1 ft. long, divided to the fourth or sixth 
degree, usually open, sometimes more or less contracted, common 
axis angular, strongly striate, more or less rough, glabrous, lower 
internodes usually 1-2 in. long ; lower primary branches mostly in 
false whorls, up to 1 ft. long, undivided for 1-J in. from the base ; 
ultimate divisions filiform, scabrid, usually slightly wavy or flexuous ; 
pedicels very unequal, the lateral very short or more usually up to 
3 lin. long, slightly thickened upwards. Spikelets oblong or oblong- 
lanceolate and acutely acuminate at first, soon gaping, 1J lin. long, 
glabrous, mostly tinged with dull purple or brown. Glumes firmly 
membranous, prominently nerved, lower more or less divergent, 
ovate, acutely acuminate to rostrate- or mucronate-acuminate, 
about two-thirds the length of the spikelet, 5-nerved with an upwards 
scaberulous keel ; upper ovate in profile with a slightly recurved 
acute or almost beaked acumen, as long as the spikelet, mostly 
7-nerved. Lower floret ; valve very like the upper glume, but 
7-9-nerved ; valvule slightly shorter, oblong, acute, flaps gradually 
widening from the middle downwards ; anthers almost 1 lin. long. 
Upper floret elliptic-oblong, obtuse to subacute, whitish, about 
1 lin. long, very smooth. — P. coloratum, Durand & De Wild., 
Mat. FI. Congo, i. 44 ; Th. & Hel. Durand, Syll. FI. Congol. 
630 (partly) ; not of Linn. P. trypheron, var. giganteum , Rendl'e 
in Cat. Afr. PL Welw. ii. 181, and in Journ. Linn. Soc., Bot., 
xl., 230. 
Upper Guinea. French Guinea : banks of Baffing river, PoMguin, 1823 ! 
Cameroons : Yaunde station, 2600 ft., Zenker & Staudt, 462 ! 
North Central. Middle Oubangui : Fort Possel, Chevalier, 5304 ! Bondjos 
country ; Bangui, Chevalier, 5217 ! Upper Oubangui : Krebedje, Chevalier, 
5742 ! and without precise locality, Viancin ! 
