28 
CL VII. GRAMINEAC (Stapf). 
[Coix. 
blades linear-lanceolate from a broad and often subcordate base, 
4-18 in. long, 1-2 in. broad, glabrous, margins cartilaginous, rough. 
Male inflorescences |-1| in. long, close to or more or less distant from 
the false fruit, quite glabrous ; spikelets 4-5 lin. long. False fruit 
typically ovoid-globose, bony, shining, white or bluish, 4-5 lin. 
long.— Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 693 ; Hook. f. FI. Brit. 
Ind. vii. 100; Rendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 161. C. Lacryma, 
Linn. Syst. ed. x. 1261 ; Lam. 111. iii. 343, t. 750 ; Beauv. Agrost. 
137, t. 24, fig. 5 ; Kunth, Enum. PI. i. 20 and Suppl. 16, t. 3 & 4 ; 
Webb, Phyt. Canar. iii. 378, t. 242, 243 ; Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 9 ; 
Coss. & Dur. Expl. Scient. Alger, ii. 16 ; Duthie, Grasses N.W. 
India, 11, and Fodd. Grass. N. Ind. 18 ; Hack, in Bolet. Soc. Brot. 
v. 212 ; Batt. & Trab. FI. Alger, Monoc. 31 ; Schweinf. in Hohnel, 
Z. Rudolf & Stephanie See, 2 (reprint) ; Engl. PH. Ost-Afr. A. 79. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone : Sherbro Island, Hunter ! Kamalu, Thomas, 
303 ! Bumbau, Thomas, 2023 ! Yonibana, Thomas, 4165 ! Pujahun, Thomas, 
8233 ! French Guinea : N.E. from Sierra Leone, Garret, 4 ! Liberia : Kaka- 
town, Whyte ! 
Lower Guinea. Island of St. Thomas : Nova Moka, Moller, 149 ! Angola : 
by the River Moembesee, near Dalatando, Welwitsch, 7241 ! Ambaca ; in 
swamps between Pumba and Puri-Cacarambola, Welwitsch, 3004 ! 
Nile Land. British East Africa : Taveta, Hohnel ; Giryama and Tsimba 
Mountains, Taylor ! 
Mozambique Distr. Zanzibar, Last ! Usambara : Magila, by streams, Holst, 
2226 ! Busse, 2180 ! 
In India this grass is used as fodder for cattle which are said to fatten on it 
( Duthie , Grasses N.W. Ind. 19). The false fruits, of which there are several 
varieties differing much in shape and size, are largely used like beads for decora- 
tive purposes, and one variety with thin shells is an important cereal in Burma 
and the Farther East. In Africa only the typical form described here has been 
found. It was very probably introduced from India. 
3. ISCHiEMUM, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PL iii. 1132. 
Spikelets of each pair alike, or differing only in sex, or more or 
less heteromorphous, one sessile or subsessile, the other pedicelled 
on the articulate fragile rhachis of 2-nate, digitate or fascicled, spike- 
like racemes, the pedicelled falling from their pedicels, the sessile 
deciduous together with the adjacent joint of the rhachis and the 
pedicel. Florets 2 ; lower generally d ; upper $ , rarely d or neuter 
in the pedicelled spikelets. Sessile spikelet : glumes equal or sub- 
equal, lower dorsally flattened or somewhat convex and usually 
coriaceous below, chartaceous and markedly nerved upwards, rarely 
shallowly concave and more or less chartaceous throughout (§ Coelis- 
chcemum), more or less 2-keeled with indexed margins ; upper boat- 
shaped keeled at least above, sometimes awned. Valves rigidly 
membranous to hyaline, of lower floret muticous, of upper usually 
2-fid and awned from the sinus, rarely mucronate or muticous. 
Valvules more or less equalling their valves, hyaline. Lodicules 2, 
cuneate. Stamens 3, sometimes smaller or rudimentary in the 
fertile flower. Stigmas linear-oblong, laterally exserted. Grain 
