Sacciolepis.] 
CL VII. GRAMINE2E (Stapf). 
751 
Culm-bases hard to wiry, erect or very 
shortly ascending with short often 
bladeless sheaths, simple below, 
then sparingly branched forming a 
scanty erect tuft ; the following 
culm with only 1 or 2 nodes above 
the base. 
False spike compact, §-l| in. long ; 
spikelets ovate-oblong ; upper 
glume and lower valve rather firm 
and bluntly ribbed ... ... 18. S. seshrioides* 
False spikes lobed or interrupted or 
reduced to a succession of scanty 
clusters and solitary spikelets ; 
spikelets lanceolate-oblong ; upper 
glume and lower valve less firm 
with slender ribs ... ... ... 19. 8. catumbensis. 
Nervation of the hard glumes and lower 
valve more or less obscure, at least 
downwards, ribs as far as visible blunt ; 
spikelets pale straw-coloured to almost 
whitish ; false spikes rather loose, less 
than 1 in. long 20. S. albida. 
^Inflorescence an open or temporarily contracted panicle 
with subcapillary to capillary branches, bearing dis- 
tantly loose racemes of 7-2 oblique gibbous gaping 
spikelets ; lower glume reduced to a minute scale : 
Sect. Rhampholepis 21. S. curvata. 
1. S. ciliocincfa^ Stapf. Annual, gregarious, up to 1J ft. high. 
Culms erect, terete, spongy, up to 2 lin. in diam. near the base, 
5-6-noded, simple or sparingly branched with the branches 2-noded, 
uppermost internodes (peduncles) slender, 4-6 in. long, lowest 1 or 
2 nodes emitting stilt-roots. Leaf-sheaths quite glabrous and 
smooth, the lower somewhat spongy and loose, the upper tight, all 
pale, faintly striate, not or very obscurely auriculate at the mouth, 
but mostly with a small rounded shoulder ; ligule membranous, 
rounded, up to 1 lin. long ; blades erect, mostly overtopping the 
spikes, linear from a more or less (in the lower leaves often long) 
attenuated base, tapering to a callous point, 3-9 in. by 1-2J lin., 
flat, convolute in the upper part, somewhat plump, densely whitish- 
papillose above on the nerves, otherwise glabrous and smooth, 
midrib and nerves very fine. False spike erect, straight, subcylindric, 
narrow downwards, about 1 in. long, very compact, bearded ; pedicels 
springing direct singly or in pairs from the slender common axis, 
minutely and loosely hairy, very short, tips discoid. Spikelets 
laterally much compressed, broad ovate-elliptic in side view, acutely 
acuminate, 2 lin. long, straw-coloured, bearded. Lower glume 
oblong, subacute, with the sides suddenly widened at the base, over 
half the length of the spikelet, with a firm narrow finely 3-nerved 
back, near the tip with a small beard of hairs, margins hyaline, 
narrow upwards ; upper boat-shaped, almost keeled, obliquely 
