680 clvii. graminea; (Stapf) . [ Panicum . 
or less gaping, lf-2 lin. long, slightly turgid, pale or glaucous green, 
usually with deep purple tips and margins, quite glabrous and smooth* 
Glumes unequal, firmly membranous, mucronate (mucro J-f lin. 
long, scaberulous), very concave ; lower obliquely ovate in profile, 
shortly acuminate, excluding the mucro half the length of the 
spikelet, 3- to sub-7-nerved ; upper ovate-lanceolate in profile, 
shortly acuminate, 7-9-nerved, as long as the spikelet. Lower 
floret : valve very similar to the upper glume, subacuminate, but 
hardly mucronate, 9-nerved ; valvule oblong, acute, 1J lin. long, 
flaps much (but gradually) widened downwards ; anthers deep 
purple, 1 lin. long. Upper floret <J>, oblong, subacute or obtuse* 
1J-1J lin. long : valve and valvule subcrustaceous to papery, 
whitish or straw-coloured, very smooth and glossy ; stigmas purple, 
§ lin. long. 
Nile Land. Southern Abyssinia : Surro, Riva, 66 ! between Adisabeba and 
Borana, Stordy ! 
33. P. massaiense, Mez in Engl. Jahrb. xxxiv., 144. Perennial, 
from a slender rhizome, 2 ft. high. Culms geniculately ascending, 
simple, 5-9-noded, slender, wiry below, terete, glabrous, internodes, 
exserted or the lowest at length bared by the slipping off or the decay 
of the sheaths. Leaf-sheaths terete, tight, or at length loosened, 
firm, finely striate, glabrous or sparingly and finely hirsute ; ligule 
reduced to a ciliate rim ; blades linear from an equally wide or slightly 
rounded base, long-tapering to a slender point, up to 6 in. by 2-24 lin., 
green, fiat, somewhat firm, glabrous and smooth or very sparingly 
and finely hirsute, margins finely cartilaginous, scaberulous, 
midrib stouter, dorsally rounded and prominent downwards, primary 
nerves 3-4 on each side, fine but usually distinct at least below. 
Panicle oblong to obovate-oblong, 3-5 in. long, somewhat contracted, 
divided to the fourth degree ; primary axis very slender, terete, striate 
and smooth below, angular and scaberulous upwards ; primary 
branches very finely filiform, scattered or variously approximate to 
pseudo-verticillate, the lowest 2-3 in. long, undivided to up to 
14 in. from the base, upwards first loosely then more and more 
closely branched ; the following divisions very fine to capillary, sca- 
berulous, forming slender racemes which are subcompound downwards 
and bear 10 to few spikelets ; pedicels very slightly thickened at the 
tips, lateral usually much shorter than the spikelets. Spikelets 
early and widely gaping, up to 1 J lin. long, glabrous, yellowish-green. 
Glumes widely divergent, membranous, lower ovate, acute or shortly 
acuminate, appressed, one-third to not quite half the length of the 
spikelet, imperfectly 1-5-nerved, middle-nerve percurrent, scaberu- 
lous, the others faint and short ; upper obliquely lanceolate 
in profile with a slender laterally compressed straight or slightly 
recurved beak, up to 1J lin. long, prominently 7-nerved. Lower 
floret : valve obliquely oblong in profile, acute, slightly shorter 
