Panicum.~\ 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
683 
or the lowest undivided for up to 1 in. ; pedicels hardly thickened 
at the tips, the lateral very short or up to over 1 lin. long. Spikelets 
early widely and obliquely gaping, f-1 lin. long, glabrous, more or 
less variegated with purple and white. Glumes widely divergent, 
membranous, somewhat similar, faintly nerved with the midnerve 
scaberulous upwards, mostly purplish, lower lanceolate or ovate- 
lanceolate in profile, acuminate or mucronate-acuminate, f-f lin. 
long, 1- to sub-5- (mostly 3-) nerved, upper obliquely oblong or 
lanceolate-oblong in profile, up to 1 lin. long, acutely acuminate, 
5-nerved. Lower floret as long as or slightly shorter than the upper 
glume, g : valve semi-ovate in profile, subacute, 5-nerved, paler 
than the glumes to almost white ; valvule slightly shorter, oblong, 
acute, flaps widening downwards ; anthers almost J lin. long, dark 
purple. Upper floret g, oblong, obtuse, \ lin. by over J lin., whitish, 
smooth and glossy ; valve and valvule papery to crustaceous.- — 
P. mitophyllum, Pilger in Engl. Jahrb. xxxiii. 50. 
Upper Guinea. Old Calabar, Robb ! 
Lower Guinea. Gaboon : Munda Distr. ; Sibange Farm, Soyaux, 345 ! 
and without precise locality, Griffon du Bellay ! Miss Kingsley I French Congo : 
savannas near N’Gore, Dybowski, 85 I Niounvoux, Lecomte, C. 94 ! Portuguese 
Congo : Vista, Chaves, 10 ! 
37. P. vagiflorum, Staff. Perennial, up to over 2 ft. high, com- 
pactly csespitose, with intravaginal innovations, shortly coated by 
the persistent sheath-bases. Culms erect or slightly geniculate, 
simple, about 4-noded, slender, terete, finely striate, glabrous like 
the whole plant. Leaf-sheaths very tight, firm, the basal short with 
their bases persistent, the intermediate and upper very much shorter 
than the internodes, all finely striate and smooth ; ligule reduced 
to a fine ciliolate rim ; blades linear from a slightly narrowed or 
equally wide base, long-tapering to a slightly callous point, 5 to over 
6 in. by 1J-2 lin., rigid, flat, green, quite glabrous and smooth except 
at the scaberulous margins, midrib very slender, slightly prominent 
below, hardly differentiated from the lateral nerves above. Panicle 
oblong to broadly ovate or obovate in outline, 3-6 in. by 2-3 in., 
open and very loose, divided to the third degree ; common axis very 
slender, striate and smooth below, angular and scaberulous upwards, 
quite glabrous ; primary branches finely filiform, mostly scattered, 
more rarely approximate in pairs, rather distant, the lowest up to 
over 3 in. long, undivided for 4-2 lin., then very loosely or remotely 
and divaricately branched ; branchlets almost capillary, more or 
less wavy, finely scaberulous, representing usually simple, very 
loose 4-2-spiculate racemes ; pedicels unequal, mostly 1J-3J lin. 
long, hardly thickened upwards. Spikelets soon gaping, 1 lin. long, 
variegated, glabrous. Glumes similar, obliquely ovate to ovate- 
lanpeolate or oblong, acutely acuminate, unequal, membranous, 
finely 5-7-nerved, mostly purple, lower three-quarters the length of 
the upper, often minutely mucronulate. Lower floret : vaive 
