36 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
\Sehima 
spikelets, the lower or both more or less reduced and barren. — 
Perennial or annual ; blades convolute when young, at length flat, 
narrow ; ligules a line of stiff hairs ; racemes usually gently curved, 
dorsiventral and laterally compressed, with the pedicelled spikelets 
converging over the convex side, joints and pedicels sublinear and 
parallel ; sessile and pedicelled spikelets strikingly hefceromorphous 
in the African species. 
Species about 5, in tropical Africa, India and North America. 
Perennial; sessile spikelets 4-4-|- lin. long, awn very 
minutely ciliate along the spiral ; pedicelled 
spikelets lanceolate, acuminate, 4^-5| lin. long ; 
their lower glume slightly 2-toothed 1 . 8. nervosum. 
Annual ; sessile spikelets 4|- 7 lin. long, awn distinctly 
ciliate along the spiral ; pedicelled spikelets nar- 
rowly lanceolate, long-acuminate, up to 8 lin. 
long ; their lower glume with 2 long setaceous teeth 2. 8. ischcemoides. 
1. S. nervosum A $ta#/. Perennial, forming dense tufts. Culms 
erect, 2 to over 3 ft. high, slender, terete, simple or nearly so, about 
4-noded, middle and upper internodes exserted, smooth or slightly 
rough below the inflorescence, glabrous. Leaves glaucous ; sheaths 
tight, terete, striate, smooth or nearly so, glabrous or sparingly 
hirsute from tubercle-based hairs ; ligules a line of short stiff hairs ; 
blades linear, long attenuated to a setaceous point, up to over 1 ft. 
long and up to 2J lin. wide, rigid, more or less scabrid, glabrous, 
lateral nerves about 3 on each side, like the midrib whitish and pro- 
minent on both sides. Racemes solitary, 3-4 J in. long, erect, 
slightly curved ; joints and pedicels parallel, sublinear, slightly 
compressed, 2-2J lin. long, densely ciliate with white hairs along 
the angles, otherwise glabrous, tips more or less oblique. Sessile 
spikelets lanceolate-linear to linear, acuminate, 4-4J lin. long, pale 
green, with a shortly bearded callus. Glumes subequal ; lower 
subchartaceous to chartaceous, with an unequally 2-toothed flat and 
membranous beak, the teeth of which sometimes run out into ciliate 
mucros, deeply grooved, particularly below the middle, acutely 2- 
keeled, outer keel generally winged upwards, intracarinal nerves- 4, 
with transverse veins in the upper part, like these green and raised 
on a white ground ; upper glume subchartaceous, somewhat shorter, 
boat-shaped, sublinear in profile, keeled above, with the keel widened 
at the apex and passing into a fine bristle 7-8 lin. long, 5-nerved 
with fine transverse veins, ciliate. Lower floret : valve faintly 2- 
nerved, hyaline, ciliate, 3 lin. long, with a narrow linear valvule of 
about equal length and a £ flower. Upper floret $ • valve oblong- 
lanceolate, 2J lin. long, 2-fid, with narrow lobes, hyaline, 3-nerved, 
ciliate ; awn up to If in. long, slender, column spirally twisted, 
bronze colour very minutely ciliate along the spiral, bristle whitish, 
as long as the column or slightly longer ; valvule as long as the valve, 
linear, subacute, 2-nerved, ciliate. Anthers up to nearly 2 lin. long. 
