Sacciolepis.] 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
765 
rhizome, emitting numerous wiry roots, np to 1 ft. high. Culms 
slender, erect or shortly ascending, with 4-5 short more or less wiry 
internodes (|— 1 in.) at the base, followed by 1 or 2 longer and a very 
long uppermost one, occupying half or more than half the culm 
{excluding the spike), simple or with a few erect leafy branches from 
the lower nodes, terete, glabrous, smooth. Leaf-sheaths tight, 
terete, exauriculate, hairy upwards or all over, prominently striate, 
the lowest often bladeless, acute, J-f in. long, the uppermost over 
6 in. long ; ligules very short, truncate, minutely ciliolate ; blades 
linear from an equally wide or very slightly rounded base, tapering 
to a somewhat hard point, the lower and uppermost very short, 
the intermediate up to 5 in. by 2 lin., rigid, flat, loosely hairy (hairs 
sometimes rather long and very fine), rough above and along the 
margins, midrib very slender, prominent and whitish below, primary 
lateral nerves moderately slender, and slightly prominent below, or 
obscure. False spike erect on. a more or less exserted peduncle, 
J-3 in. by up to 2J or 3J lin., lobed or interrupted, sometimes 
reduced to a succession of appressed 2-3-spiculate racemes and 
(upwards) solitary spikelets ; pedicels rather stouter than usual in 
this genus, up to 1 J lin. long, minutely scaberulous with discoid tips. 
Spikelets lanceolate-oblong, acute, temporarily slightly gaping, 
2-2 J lin. long, yellowish-green, glabrous. Glumes ribbed ; lower 
broad-ovate, subacute to obtuse in' dorsal view, two-thirds the length 
of the spikelet, 7-9-nerved ; upper ovate-oblong, with (when 
flattened out) subobtuse subhyaline tips, 9-nerved. Lower floret 
or barren : valve very similar to and of the same or almost the same 
length as the upper glume, 9-nerved ; valvule lanceolate-acute, much 
shorter than the valve with flaps evanescent upwards ; anthers (if 
present) up to almost 1J lin. long, whitish. Upper floret oblong, 
acute, 1-1 J lin. by § lin., white, polished; anthers 1J lin. long; 
plumose stigmas up to 1 lin. long, long-feathery .— Panicum catum- 
bense, Eendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 175. 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Benguella ; Andrade Corvo Mountains, 4400 ft., 
Wellmann, 1806 ! Huilla ; pastures near Catumba, Welwitsch, 2689 ! 
20 . S. albida, Staff. Perennial, from a very slender rhizome, 
up to over 2 ft. high. Culms erect or suberect, with a slender and 
hard base, which comprises 3-4 upwards increasing internodes 
(J-1J in. long), above it 2-noded, very slender with 1 or 2 long leafy 
erect branches, the internode above the branching node compressed, 
otherwise terete, uppermost internode but one up to 6 in. long, the 
following (peduncle) up to over 1 ft. long, all quite glabrous, and 
smooth. Basal leaf-sheaths longer than or as long as the internodes, 
with rudimentary blades, brownish, the following herbaceous, some- 
what loose and slipping off the culm, the uppermost tight, the longest 
2-3 in. long, all without auricles or shoulders, finely keeled upwards 
and prominently striate, the lower very loosely hairy with fine 
