756 
CL VII. GrRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
[Sacciolepis. 
with short flowering branches from the base and a 1-noded primary 
culm rising above them ; in elongated specimens the lower 2 or 3 nodes 
more or less distant, hence the branches also more or less remote and 
distinctly above the base, the corresponding internodes stouter and 
spongy, the primary culm and often also the elongated branches 
geniculate. Leaf-sheaths rather loose and wide, uppermost tight, 
all thin with minute auricles or shoulders, quite glabrous and smooth ; 
ligules membranous, truncate, very short ; blades narrowly linear from 
an equally wide base, tapering to a minute callous point, 1 J to over 
6 in. by 4-f lin., flat or involute, thin, weak, green, loosely papillose 
to glabrous on the nerves above, midrib and lateral nerves (2 or 3 
on each side) very delicate. False spikes erect on a finely filiform 
often long-exserted peduncle, f-2 in. by l-J- If lin., continuous and 
dense or slightly interrupted ; axis very slender, lin. in diam. ; 
pedicels fine, with few minute hairs or slightly scaberulous, tips 
discoid. Spikelets ovate to ovate-oblong, symmetrical, first acute, 
then obtuse, §-§ lin. long, widely gaping when mature and shedding 
the false fruit, tardily deciduous, olive-green mostly with dark 
purple nerves and tips, glabrous. Glumes very thin, finely nerved ; 
lower broad-ovate, subobtuse or obtuse, over half to three-quarters 
the length of the spikelet, 3-5-nerved : upper 5-7-nerved. Lower 
floret barren : valve very like the upper glume and of the same 
length, 5-7-nerved ; valvule linear, three-quarters the length of the 
valve or more reduced with narrow upwards evanescent flaps. 
Upper floret oblong, subobtuse, 4 lin. by J lin., brownish when ripe, 
polished. — Panicum Jmillense , Rendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 174. 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Benguella ; country of the Ganguellas and 
Ambuellas, Gossweiler, 3152 (partly) ! Huilla ; in poor damp pastures in the 
Humpata district, Welwitsch, 2699 ! 
Mozambique Distr. Rhodesia : Mazo e, Eyles, 320 ! North-west Rhodesia : 
Choma, Rogers, 8091 ! . v 
/ H ‘ ) 
8. S. spiciformis A Stapf. Annual, tufted, 3-4 in. high. Culms 
slender, erect, with a subbasal node and sometimes another 4 in. 
higher up, smooth and glabrous. Leaf-sheaths herbaceous, or pale 
and submembranous at the base, somewhat compressed upwards, 
quite glabrous and smooth, striate ; ligule a very narrow glabrous 
membranous rim ; blades linear from an almost equally wide base, 
tapering to a slender point, 1-1 § in. by 1-14 lin., flat, green, soft, 
quite glabrous and smooth, midrib and primary lateral nerves very 
fine. False spike cylindric, |-f in. by lf-2J lin., compact, quite 
glabrous ; pedicels up to J lin. long with minutely discoid tips. 
Spikelets symmetrical or nearly so, not gaping, ovoid, somewhat 
plump, subacute to obtuse, 1 lin. by slightly over 4 lin., pale olive- 
green, tinged with lurid purple upwards, quite glabrous and smooth. 
Lower glume broad-elliptic, obtuse, two-thirds the length of the 
spikelet, 5-nerved ; upper broadly elliptic-oblong, subacute, 7-9- 
uerved. Lower floret barren : valve very like the upper glume 
