716 
CLVII. GEAMINE^] (Stapf). 
[Panicum . 
sub hyaline, 1 -nerved or with a minute rudimentary nerve on each 
side ; upper obliquely oblong in profile, subacuminate, as long as the 
spikelet, 7-9-nerved, nerves anastomosing upwards and more or 
less prominent in the dry state. Lower floret : valve very like 
the upper glume and equal in size, 7-nerved ; valvule oblong, obtuse, 
flaps rather wide in the lower third; anthers purple, £ lin. long. 
Upper floret <J>, oblong, subacute or almost obtuse, 1 lin. by f lin., 
brown, glossy and smooth ; valve and valvule subcoriaceous to 
crustaceous. Grain yellowish. — Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. 
v. 764 ; Hack, in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iv. App. iii. 15. 
Lower Guinea. South Angola : in open forest near kilometre 108 - 5 on the 
Mossamedes railway, Pearson, 2861 ! and near kilometre 107 on the same 
railway, Pearson, 2368 ! Amboland : Olukonda, Schinz, 641 ! between Ondonga 
and Unkuanyama, Rautanen, 5 ! 
70. P. hygrocharis, Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 72. Annual, tufted, 
up to over 2 ft. high. Culms slender to somewhat stout, soft, erect 
or geniculately ascending, sometimes from a short decumbent base, 
few- to 6-noded, more or less fastigiately branched or almost simple, 
smooth, glabrous like the whole plant, the internodes more or less 
equalling the sheaths, except the uppermost which is at length long- 
exserted. Leaf-sheaths rather loose or slightly inflated, finely 
striate, very smobth ; ligule a minutely ciliolate or obscure rim ; 
blades linear from a slightly rounded or in robust specimens almost 
amplexicaul base, usually shortly tapering to a subacute slightly 
callous point, rarely long and finely attenuated upwards, 3-4 by 
2J-4J lin., occasionally up to 9 in. by 6 lin., flat, soft, when long 
more or less flaccid, pale to glaucous-green, quite smooth except 
along the finely scaberulous upper margins or somewhat rough on the 
back towards the tips, midrib almost as slender as the 3-5 primary 
lateral nerves, or the latter all but indistinct from the very close 
secondary nerves, or in large blades the midrib thickened downwards. 
Panicles erect or somewhat nodding, contracted or more or less open, 
moderately loose, 3-4 (rarely over 6) in. long, divided to the fourth 
degree, all the divisions finely filiform, subangular and upwards 
slightly scaberulous or almost quite smooth ; primary axis slender, 
angular, lower and intermediate internodes of unequal length, some 
up to over 1J in. long ; primary branches solitary and scattered or 
irregularly approximate in pairs or occasionally in false whorls, the 
longest often almost as long as the panicle, divided from a few lines 
to over 1 in. above the base ; secondary branches rather long (to over 
1J in.), their divisions contracted with the penultimate divisions 
forming slender or short 3-2-spiculate racemes, the spikelets irregu- 
larly scattered or approximate ; pedicels slightly widened upwards 
with truncate-clavellate tips, the lateral J-2 lin. long. Spikelets 
oblong, acutely apiculate, up to 14 lin. long, pale greenish. Glumes 
very unequal ; lower broadly ovate from a clasping base, shortly 
