711 
Panicum.] clvii. gramine^ (Stapf). 
greenish-brown, smooth and glossy ; valve and valvule thinly 
crustaceous. — P. Appletonii , Stapf in Kew Bulletin, 1907, 225. 
Nile Land. Italian Somaliland: in sand near Obbia, Appletonl common on 
all the dunes along the coast near Mogadiscio and El Sai, Paoli , 14, 296. 
65. P. rigidum, Balf. f. in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb. xii. 97, and 
Bot. Socotra in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. xxx. 311. Perennial, densely 
■csespitose with numerous tough root-fibres and intra- and extra- 
vaginal innovations, the buds of these covered with papery or mem- 
branous pale downwards appressedly hairy cataphylls. Culms many, 
slender, radiating, from a few inches to 2 feet long, prostrate and 
rooting from the nodes or geniculately ascending, many-noded, simple 
or branching here and there, the branches from the prostrate portion 
swollen at the base and covered with silkily hairy cataphylls, the 
internodes glabrous and smooth. Leaf-sheaths short, moderately 
firm, the lower pale, somewhat loose, the upper glaucous, tight, more 
or less softly ciliate at the junction with the blade ; ligule reduced 
to a softly ciliate rim ; blades narrowly linear, tapering to an acute 
point, J-2 in. by f-1 lin. (when flattened out), glaucous, firm, but 
hardly rigid, those of compact tufts tightly involute, quite glabrous 
■except at the base, smooth, finely and closely nerved. Panicle exserted, 
oblong to ovate in outline, f-1 \ in. by f-1 in. when quite open, very 
loose, divided up to the third degree, quite glabrous except for some 
axillary hairs, all divisions finely filiform, slightly wavy, almost 
smooth ; primary branches 6-8, solitary, J-l in. long, the lower 
divided again, the branchlets forming downwards compound or 
simple 5-2-spiculate loose racemes ; pedicels very slightly thicker 
upwards, the lateral very short to almost 1 lin. long. Spikelets 
oblong, obtuse to subacute, f lin. long, at length more or less gaping, 
pale with greenish nerves, glabrous. Glumes similar but unequal, 
thinly membranous ; lower obliquely ovate in profile, shortly acute, 
one-third to one-half the length of the upper floret, up to 5-nerved, 
side-nerves short to very short ; upper obliquely and broadly 
oblong, obtuse to subacute, 5- to sub-7 -nerved. Lower floret barren : 
valve very similar and equal to the upper glume, obtuse, 5-nerved, 
side-nerves close ; valvule shorter, oblong, subacute with rather 
narrow flaps. Upper floret elliptic- oblong, obtuse, lin. long, 
whitish, smooth, glossy. — Durand & Schinz, Consp.Fl. Afr. v. 761. 
Nile Land. Socotra : near Galonsir and Tamarida, Balfour. 130 ! 561 ! 
Schweinfurth, 346 ! 
66. P. subflabellatum, Staff. Perennial, quite glabrous, 1 ft. high, 
csespitose from a short rhizome, emitting very numerous root-fibres, 
with glabrous extra vaginal innovation-buds. Culms erect, very 
slender, wiry below, terete, glabrous and smooth, 6-8-noded, 
branched from all but the lower 2 or 3 nodes ; branches subfastigiate, 
obliquely erect and pushing the supporting sheath away from its 
