Sacciolepis.] 
CLVII. GRAMINE2E (Stapf). 
767 
spikelets ; pedicels j-1 lin. long, with minutely but distinctly 
discoid tips. Spikelets very obliquely oblong, gibbous and soon 
gaping, up to over 1J lin. long, green, glabrous and smooth. Glumes 
ver}r dissimilar ; lower reduced to a minute ovate faintly 3-1 -nerved 
thin scale ; upper obliquely ovate-lanceolate and acute in profile, 
ovate in dorsal view, conspicuously gibbous below, as long as the 
spikelet, herbaceous-membranous, prominently 9-11-nerved. Lower 
floret (J : valve sublinear in profile, oblong in dorsal view, as long as 
the upper glume and of the same substance, but 5-nerved ; valvule 
linear, hyaline, 2-nerved, shorter than the valve, with very narrow flaps. 
Upper floret elliptic-oblong in outline, obtuse, dorsally convex 
(the curvature much broader than high), up to § lin. long, pale honey- 
coloured, polished ; valve and valvule thinly crustaceous, the former 
very narrowly involute, obscurely 5-nerved, the latter with narrow 
downwards widening flaps ; anthers | lin. long. Grain broad- 
elliptic, almost plano-convex, § lin. by J lin. ; embryo not quite half 
the length of the grain ; hilum small, punctiform. — Panicum 
curvatum, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. xii. 732 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 87 ; Nees, 
FI. Afr. Austr. 50 (excl. syn.) ; Steud. Syn. PL Glum. i. 67 ; Durand & 
Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 745 ; K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 
103 ; Hook. f. FI. Brit. Ind. vii. 42 ; Stapf in Dyer, FI. Cap. vii. 414 ; 
Wood, Natal PI. t. 475 (bad). P. curvatum , var. tenellum, Durand 
& Schinz, l.c. (excl. syn. Roxb. & Kunth). P. coryojphorum, Kunth, 
Rev. Gram. i. t. 107, and Enum. i. 88 ; Steud. l.c. 67 ; Durand & 
Schinz, l.c. 744. 
Nile Land. British East Africa : in sandy plains in the Sabake valley, 
Gregory ! 
Mozambique Distr. Zanzibar, Last ! Taylor ! German East Africa : 
Tanga, Sacleux, 2572 ! Kilimanjaro, Maurui, Volkens, 2369 ! Usambara • 
on cultivated land near Muoa, Holst, 3119 ! Rovnma Bay, Kirk ! 
Also in Natal, the islands of the Western Indian Ocean and Southern India 
and Ceylon. 
Imperfecilir known species. / ^ 
22. Panicum (§ Gomphopanicum) rigens,. Mez.in Engl. Jahrb. 
xxxiv. 141. Perennial, stoloniferous, over 3 ft. high. Culms erect, 
stout, almost simple, terete, glabrous and smooth. Leaf-sheaths' 
slightly keeled upwards, glabrous and smooth, produced at the mouth 
into large triangular auricles ; ligules adnate to the auricles, glabrous ; 
blades linear from an equally wide base, gradually tapering to an 
acute point up to 14 in. by 2 \ lin., erect, involute when dry, quite 
glabrous, margins almost smooth, midrib stout. False spike cylin- 
dric, dense, over 3 in. by 3J lin. ; axis stout, straight, multi- 
angular ; pedicels short to very short, stout, glabrous and smooth. 
Spikelets conical, 2 lin. by } lin., terete, erect or obliquely erect, 
glabrous or sparingly hairy, hairs long. Lower glume broadly 
rotundate-ovate, half the length of the spikelet, 5-nerved ; upper 
>7 9 % 
x 1 • 5 ^ 
