Panicum .] 
CLVII. GBAMINEiE (Stapf). 
687 
41. P. aphanoneurum, Stapf ex Cheval. Sudania, 32, 34, 149, 152, 
180 (name). Perennial, densely csespitose, reed-like, 4-7 ft. high 
with intra- and extra-vaginal innovations, the latter slender and 
covered with smooth glabrous cataphylls. Culms erect, rather 
stout, to 3 lin. in diam., 4-6-noded, simple, very smooth and often 
glaucous below the dark nodes. Leaf-sheaths firm, terete, tight, 
all glabrous except at the upwards ciliolate margins and very smooth, 
or very rarely some of the lowest pubescent upwards, frequently 
flushed with purple, the basal more or less persistent ; ligule reduced 
to a very narrow ciliolate rim ; blades linear from an equally wide 
base, long-tapering to a slender point, J-1J ft. by 2-5 lin., firm and 
tough, more 'or less rigid, dull green or flushed with red, quite 
glabrous except for a lateral tuft or a line of small white hairs on each 
side at the junction with the sheath, smooth below, rough above 
(at least upwards) and along the margins, midrib slender, downwards 
slightly prominent on the back and whitish on the face, otherwise 
often inconspicuous, lateral nerves close, the primary (up to 6 on 
each side) usually little differentiated. Panicle oblong to ovate- 
or obovate-oblong, more or less contracted or more rarely widely 
open and loose, J to over 1 ft. by 2-5 in., divided to the fourth or fifth 
degree ; primary axis slender, terete or grooved below, angular 
upwards, quite glabrous, scaberulous or scabrid all along or smooth 
below ; primary branches either solitary and of these the lowest 
often much divided from the base, forming more or less dense fascicles 
of very unequal branchlets, or approximate in pairs or frequentfy 
in false whorls, the lowest 3-9 in. long, undivided for a short or long 
(to over 1 in.) distance from the base, then very loosely branched, 
the secondary or, in decompound panicles, the tertiary branchlets 
forming downwards compound or altogether simple long and loose 
or short and more or less dense racemes, all the divisions filiform, 
increasingly fine, often compressed below, angular and scabrid ; 
pedicels with minutely discoid tips, the lateral often very short. 
Spikelets early and often widely gaping, lj-lf lin. long, quite pale 
or pale with purple tips or richly tinged with purple or altogether 
deep purple, glabrous. Glumes similar, somewhat firmly mem- 
branous, obscurely nerved ; lower obliquely ovate in profile, 
acuminate and more or less mucronulate, appressed except the 
tips, half to over three-quarters the length of the lower floret, 
3-5-nerved, midnerve prominent upwards and scaberulous ; upper 
obliquely oblong in profile, acutely acuminate with the acumen 
slightly recurved, as long as the spikelet, 5-nerved. Lower floret £ : 
valve very similar to the upper glume and equalling it or almost so, 
but less acuminate with the acumen straight, 5-nerved ; valvule 
slightly shorter, oblong, acute ; anthers J-f lin. long. Upper 
floret oblong, obtuse, f to almost 1 lin. long and half as wide, 
wdiitish, very smooth and glossy. — P. anabaptistum, Pobeguin, Ess. 
El. Guin. Fran 9 . 214 ; not of Steud. 
