Panicum .] clvii. gramineje (Stapf). 731 
Jahrb. Hamb. Wiss. Anstalt. ix. 120 ; Kendle in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. 
ii. 183 ; Hitchcock in Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. xii. 140 ; xv. 129, 
131 ; xvii. 249, 504. P. capillaceum , Lam. Encycl. i. 173 ; Doell in 
Mart. FI. Bras. ii. ii. 249, incl. var. strictius. P. filamentosum, Pers. 
Syn. i. 83. 
Upper Guinea. Gold Coast : Ashanti; Mansu, Cummins, 11! Southern 
Nigeria : New Calabar ; Degema, Holland, 135 ! Eruwa ( collector ?), 60 ! and 
without precise locality, Thomas , 1760 ! 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Golungo Alto ?, Welwitsch, 2962 ! 
Widely distributed throughout tropical America and often a weed of cultiva- 
tion. Probably introduced in Africa. Klatt (l.c.) quotes it from Zanzibar 
(Stuhlmann). 
87. P. brevifolium, Linn. Sp. PI. ed. i. 59. Annual, very loosely 
tufted on an often prostrate base or rambling among other vegetation, 
2 or more ft. (up to 7) high. Culms slender, weak, very many-noded, 
throwing out aerial roots from the lower nodes (usually one per node), 
branched from the prostrate or ascending base, simple or almost so 
upwards, terete, smooth and glabrous, internodes exserted or the 
lowest becoming quite bare by the loss of their sheaths. Leaf- 
sheaths tight or the lower loose and thrust aside, prominently finely 
striate, densely long-ciliate, otherwise glabrous and smooth, rarely 
with a few hairs here and there ; ligule a low membranous rim ; 
blades lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate from a broad rounded to 
subcordate and tightly constricted to subpetiolate base, 1-3 in. by 
6- 10 lin., spreading, flat, very thin, green, usually long-ciliate at the 
rounded base, otherwise loosely and appressedly hairy to glabrous, 
midrib very fine, whitish below, primary lateral nerves 3-4 on each 
side, distant, with about 5 secondary nerves between, connected by 
extremely delicate and often inconspicuous cross-veins. Panicles 
erect, at length long-exserted, delicate, widely open and very loose, 
broad-oblong, ovate or obovate in outline, from less than 3 to over 6 in. 
by 2-6 in., divided to the third or fourth degree ; common axis like 
all its divisions, terete, glabrous and smooth or scaberulous upwards, 
very slender, lower internodes mostly about 1 lin. long, but here and 
there one much shorter to almost suppressed, or up to almost 2 in. 
long ; primary branches solitary or 2-nate or subopposite, obliquely 
spreading, wavy, but more or less rigid, very loosely divided from the 
base or near it and then often forming imperfect false whorls or from 
some distance above it, filiform, very fine upwards, internodes mostly 
7- 4 lin. long ; secondary branchlets capillary, up to over 1 in. long, 
bearing 4-1 very loosely scattered spikelets ; pedicels very unequal, 
1-6 lin. long, tips very slightly thickened. Spikelets ovate-oblong to 
oblong, acute (back view), oblique in profile, f lin. long, green, 
glabrous or rarely pubescent, the lower floret with the lower glume 
persistent for some time after the fall of the fruit and upper 
glume. Glumes equally long but very different in shape and texture ; 
lower hyaline to subhyaline, linear-lanceolate, acute, finely 3- or 
