762 
CL VII. GRAMINEJE (Stapf). 
[Sacciolepis. 
finely striate, without auricles at the mouth ; ligules very short, 
rounded or truncate, membranous, minutely ciliolate ; blades linear 
from an equally wide or more or less attenuated base, tapering to a 
long fine point, 4-5 in. by 1-2 lin., flat, thin, green, loosely silkily 
hairy with the hairs rather long downwards, slightly rough upwards 
and along the very fine cartilaginous margins, midrib and lateral 
nerves (3 on each side) about equally fine. False spike erect on a 
long-exserted peduncle, • cylindric, about 1J in. by 2| lin., more or 
less silky, lobed with the lobes made up of short rather dense com- 
pound racemes or much interrupted and sometimes extremely scanty 
and broken up into 3-2-spiculate racemes and solitary spikelets ; 
common axis very slender, lobes up to 3 lin. long ; pedicels smooth, 
up to over 1 lin. long, tightly appressed, tips discoid. Spikelets 
oblong, symmetrical, somewhat gaping, with the upper halves of the 
upper glume and lower valve almost parallel, 2 lin. long, greyish- 
green or tinged with purple or brown. Glumes thin, finely but 
prominently nerved ; lower broad-ovate, subacute, half the length 
of the spikelet, minutely and loosely hairy, 7 -nerved ; upper broad- 
oblong (in dorsal view), subacute, uniformly loosely , and shortly 
hairy, 13-nerved. Lower floret : valve very similar to the upper 
glume, but 11 -nerved with a long transverse fringe of silvery hairs 
above the middle and loose short hairs above it ; valvule lanceolate, 
acute, much shorter than the valve ; anthers 1 lin. long. Upper 
floret oblong, subacute, 1 lin. long, white, polished ; valve and 
valvule very thin. 
Mozambique Distr. Northern Rhodesia : bv the Chibenga stream, Kassner, 
2087 ! 2157 ! 
16. S. auriculata, Stapf. Perennial (?), up to 3 ft. high. Culms 
slender, easily compressible, ascending from an often long-decumbent 
and rambling base emitting long (over 6 in.) aerial roots from its 
nodes, the erect portion about 5-noded and sparingly branched, the 
lower internodes soon bared by the sheaths slipping off, 2-3 in. 
by 1-1 \ lin., the lowest sometimes more or less compressed, the upper- 
most up to over 1 ft. long, all quite glabrous and smooth. Leaf- 
sheaths herbaceous, somewhat firm, prominently striate, glabrous 
and smooth or sparingly hairy upwards, more or less compressed 
and keeled upwards, produced at the mouth into acute or subacute 
auricles, up to 2 lin. long, shorter than the internodes ; ligules thinly 
membranous, laterally adnate to the auricles ; blades linear from 
a gradually attenuated or equally wide base which is much narrower 
than the mouth of the sheath, upwards tapering to a fine point, over 
6 (rarely up to 9) in. by 1J-2 lin., flexuous, at first plicate-convolute, 
then flat, quite glabrous or rarely very sparingly hairy, smooth 
except along the upwards scaberulous margins, midrib slender, 
prominent below and whitish, lateral nerves 2-3 on each side, gener- 
ally obscure. False spike erect on a long-exserted peduncle, straight 
