Panicum.] 
CLVII. GRAMINE^ (Stapf). 
697 
glabrous. Leaf-sbeaths terete, somewhat loose or the upper tight, 
closely striate, spreadingly hirsute with conspicuously tubercle- 
based hairs, pubescent or loosely bearded at the nodes, longer or 
slightly shorter than the internodes ; ligule a narrow ciliate rim ; 
blades linear from an equally wide or slightly contracted and rounded 
base long- tapering to a slender point, \ to over 1 ft. by 3-10 lin., 
flat, flexuous, usually glabrous except for the often ciliate lower 
margins and hispidulous dorsal midrib, rarely sparsely hairy all 
over, hairs long and fine, midrib somewhat stout and prominent 
below in large leaves, primary lateral nerves 3-6 on each side, very 
slender. Panicles contracted and rather dense or open, narrowly 
oblong, nodding, often with their base permanently enclosed in the 
uppermost sheath or only shortly exserted, up to 1 ft. long, in sub- 
spontaneous specimens usually scantier, looser and at length more 
open, divided up to the fourth or in cultivated specimens the fifth 
degree, all the divisions filiform, angular and scabrid ; primary axis 
slender or somewhat stout below, subterete, striate or grooved and 
smooth towards the base ; primary branches more or less approximate 
below, more distant upwards, up to two-thirds or three-quarters the 
length of the panicle, often much divided from low down ; branchlets 
relatively long, the lower divided again in the same manner or like 
the remainder from much higher up with spikelets in small loose 
racemes of 2 (rarely 3) towards the summit ; pedicels hardly 
thickened upwards, with truncate tips, the lateral from less than 
1 to 3 lin. long, terminal somewhat (rarely much) exceeding the lower. 
Spikelets ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, apiculate-acuminate, 
turgid, 2J-2J lin. long, glabrous, green or brownish-green. Glumes 
persistent, unequal, strongly and prominently nerved ; lower broad- 
ovate, acute, from half to two-thirds the length of the lower 
floret, 5-nerved ; upper corresponding in size and outline to the 
spikelet, broadly rounded on the back, 11 -nerved, tip contracted, 
apiculate to shortly rostrate. Lower floret barren : valve very like 
the lower glume ; valvule ovate to ovate-oblong, truncate or 
emarginate, up to about one-third the length of the valve. Upper 
floret elliptic- oblong in outline, subacute, very convex on the back, 
up to over 1J lin. by 1 lin., variously coloured (white, yellow, red, 
brown or black), very smooth and polished ; valve and valvule 
crustaceous. Grain white. — Forsk. FI. iEgypt.-Arab. civ. ;• Host, 
Gram. Austr. ii. 16, t. 20 ; Kunth. Enum. i. 104, Suppl. 81 ; Trin. 
Pan. Gen. 194, and Sp. Gram. Ic. t. 221 ; Eeichb. Ic. FI. Germ. vii. t. 
82 ; Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 77 ; Goss. & Durieu, Expl. Scient. Alger, 
ii. 32 ; Duthie, List Grass. N.-W. Ind. 5 ; Field and Gard. Crops, 
t. 23, and Fodd. Grass. N. Ind. 9 ; Schweinf. Beitr. FI. Aethiop. 301, 
and in Bull. Herb. Boiss. ii. App. ii. 23 ; Fig. & De Not. in Mem. Ac. 
Torin. ii. xii. 354 ; Batt. & Trab. FI. Alger. Monoc. 36 ; Aschers. & 
Schweinf. Illustr. FI. figypte, 160 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. 
v. 754 ; Hook. f. FI. Brit. Ind. vii. 45 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. Ind. 
