694 
CLVII. GRAMINE2E (Stapf). 
[. Panicum . 
geniculate, in tall specimens often repeatedly so and arching, slender, 
glabrous and very smooth, often purplish, up to 4-noded, internodes 
up to over 4 in. long, branched from all or most nodes, with the 
branches often fascicled and very unequal, the longest occasionally 
almost equalling the main culm. Leaf-sheaths somewhat loose, 
striate, rarely much over 2 in. long, glabrous except at the upper 
margins which are sometimes delicately ciliate ; ligule a minute 
ciliolate rim ; blades linear from a slightly rounded base, tapering 
to a slender point, from less than 1 to over 6 in. by 1J-2 lin., flat, 
flaccid, quite glabrous, slightly scaberulous along the margins, midrib 
and primary lateral nerves (about 3 on each side) fine and slightly 
prominent below, less so or hardly at all above. Panicle open and 
very loose, oblong or in short specimens more usually ovate in out- 
line, up to 4 (rarely 6) in. by 2 in. , quite glabrous, divided to the third 
or sometimes the fourth degree, all divisions very slender, somewhat 
rigid, scaberulous upwards, obliquely erect or more or less spreading 
but hardly divaricate ; primary branches scattered or more often 
irregularly approximate or pseudoverticillate, with minute motile 
cushions at the base, divided from the base or somewhat above it, 
the lower in large panicles up to over 2 in. long, divisions distantly 
divided again from the base or near it, forming very loose at length 
mostly contracted racemes of 6-2 spikelets or upwards simple ; 
pedicels slightly thickened at the tips, lateral to over 1-3 lin. long ; 
in dwarf specimens the panicles much smaller and more contracted. 
Spikelets 1 lin. long, oblong, acutely acuminate when closed, then 
more or less but never widely gaping, greenish or more often tinged 
with purple. Glumes obliquely erect, not divaricate, thinly mem- 
branous, finely nerved ; lower obliquely lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate 
in profile, acutely acuminate, not or very obscurely mucronate, 
three-quarters to four-fifths the length of the spikelet, 3-nerved, 
midnerve smooth or very minutely scaberulous ; upper similar 
but longer, wider, 5- to sub-5-nerved, the inner 3 nerves some- 
times slightly prominent upwards. Lower floret barren: valve 
similar ' to the upper glume, but somewhat shorter and paler, 
5-nerved ; valvule distinctly shorter than the valve, empty or with 
minute rudimentary anthers. Upper floret oblong, obtuse, 
J-f lin. by J lin., whitish, glossy and smooth ; valve and valvule 
crustaceous ; anthers not quite \ lin. long, purplish. — Thwait. Enum. 
PI. Zeyl. 360 ; Duthie, List Grass. N.-W. Tnd. 4, and Eodd. Grass. 
N. Ind. 9 ; Hook. f. FI. Brit. Ind. vii. 48, and in Trim. Handb. 
FI. Ceyl. v. 152 ; Cheval. Sudania, 33 (partly). P. tenellum , Griff. 
Not. iii. 21, and Ic. PI. Asiat. t. 139, fig. 194 ; not of Boxb. 
Upper Guinea. Lower Senegal and Cayor : Tamboukane, Chevalier, 2234 ! 
Mohou, near Matam, Chevalier, 2235 ! Gambia, Mungo Park ! Northern 
Nigeria : Nnpe, Barter, 886 B ! 
Also in India, from Ceylon to Assam. Of the Indian specimens the taller 
agree exactly with those enumerated here, whilst the dwarf forms owing to 
