Panicum. ] 
CLVII. GBAMINEiE (Stapf). 
695 
their stunted habit, more contracted smaller panicles and slightly plumper 
.spikelets, have a facies of their own which at the first glance might suggest a 
distinct species. 
49. P. Afzslii, Sw. Adnot. Bot. 5. Annual, tufted, J-l ft. high. 
Culms erect or geniculately ascending, very slender and rather weak, 
glabrous, 2-4-noded, branched from all or most nodes, with the 
branches often fascicled and very unequal, the longest often equalling 
the main culm, all flowering. Leaf-sheaths thin, somewhat loose, 
striate, glabrous or more often ciliate or loosely hirsute upwards, 
the hairs fine, spreading from tubercles, longer or shorter than the 
internodes ; ligule a minute ciliolate rim ; blades linear from a slightly 
rounded base, tapering to a fine point, 2-5 in. by 1-1 J (rarely 2) lin., 
flat, flaccid, sparingly hirsute, midrib and primary lateral nerves 
(2-3 on each side) very fine and slightly prominent below, hardly 
differentiated above, margins scaberulous. Panicle open and very 
loose, oblong, 3-5 in. by 1 to almost 3 in., quite glabrous, divided to 
the third or here and there the fourth degree, all divisions very slender 
to capillary, minutely scaberulous upwards, divaricate ; primary 
branches scattered or more often approximate in false whorls or 
pairs, with a distinct motile cushion at the base, divided from the 
base or somewhat (up to 3 lin.) above it, the lower 2 (rarely 3)-l in. 
long, divisions divided again, 6-2-spieulate or the upper simple ; 
pedicels slightly thickened at the tips, the lateral if representing axes 
of the third or fourth degree very short to over 1 lin. long, otherwise 
like the terminal, often much longer (to over 3 lin.). Spikelets up 
to 1 lin. long, oblong, acuminate when closed, soon widely gaping, 
greenish or more often tinged with purple. Glumes divaricate, 
similar, thinly membranous, finely nerved ; lower obliquely ovate- 
lanceolate or lanceolate in profile, acuminate and mucronate or 
aristulate, three-quarters to four-fifths the length of the spikelet 
or sometimes including the awnlet as long as it, 1-3-nerved, mid- 
nerve scaberulous, outer nerves short and faint ; upper obliquely 
oblong in profile, finely acuminate, sometimes shortly mucronulate, 
as long as - the spikelet, 3-5-nerved, the inner 3 nerves sometimes 
slightly prominent upwards. Lower floret somewhat gibbously 
semi-ovate in profile, acute or shortly acuminate, firmer and shorter 
than the lower glume, 5- (rarely 3-) nerved, side-nerves distant from 
the midnerve ; valvule almost as long, flaps much widened down- 
wards ; anthers J-f lin. long. Upper floret oblong, subacute, 
i~t lin. long, white or whitish, very smooth and glossy ; valve and 
valvule thinly crustaceous. — Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 
767. P. divergens, Afz. ex Sw. l.c. ; not of H.B. & K. P. muscarium , 
Trin. Ic. et Descr. Gram. ii. t. 235 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 105 ; Steud. 
Syn. PI. Glum. i. 79. P. humile, Cheval. Sudania, 33, partly ; not 
of Nees ex Steud. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone : Magbile, Thomas , 6467 ! by hard paths on 
