Urelytrum.] 
CLVII. GRAMINE^E (Stapf). 
47 
lowest raceme solitary, tlie following verticillate or opposite, all 
peduncled (peduncles IJ-f in. long and with a few hairs at the 
base), stiff, erect, over ft. long, and about 1 lin. in diam., glabrous, 
dull purplish ; joints linear, slightly thickened above, semiterete, 
very slightly concave on the inner face, prominently many-nerved, 
rough on the back, outer angle scabrid, disarticulating obliquely, 
scar surrounded by a coriaceous ciliolate irregularly toothed appen- 
dage ; pedicels linear, similar to and almost contiguous with the 
joints but more compressed and shorter, indistinctly nerved and 
without appendages. Sessile spikelet with a short obovate minutely 
bearded callus, which is hardly marked off from the lower glume, 
3-34 lin. long, linear-oblong. Glumes subequal, coriaceous, very 
minutely truncate, rather flat on the back, with keels spinulously 
ciliate above the middle, 6-nerved, intracarinal nerves 2, one or both 
of them slightly raised and scaberulous upwards ; upper glume 
chartaceous, almost as long as the lower, narrowly boat-shaped, 
acute, 3-nerved, keel rigidly ciliolate above, lateral nerves sub- 
marginal, margin hyaline and ciliate. Lower floret : valve lanceo- 
late from a broad base, subacute, almost 3 lin. long, hyaline, cilio- 
late, with a similar 2-nerved, almost glabrous valvule. Upper 
floret ; valve similar to that of the lower floret, but firmer below, 
more or less boat-shaped and 3-nerved, its valvule of the same 
length, somewhat obtuse, faintly 2-nerved. Anthers up to 1J lin. 
long. Pedicelled spikelets similar to the sessile, but both florets 
usually 3, the lower glume produced into a squarrose scabrid awn, 
f in. long. 
Lower Guinea. Belgian Congo : Baschilange ; Mukenge, Pogge ; Muata 
Yamvo’s Mussumba, Pogge, 471. Angola : Malange, Gossweiler, 800 ! 
6. U. thyrsioides, Stapf. Perennial, up to 8 ft. high. Culms 
erect, terete below, up to £ in. in diam., very glabrous and smooth, 
5- or more-noded. Leaf-sheaths terete, firm, striate upwards, more 
or less hirsute, or quite glabrous and smooth ; ligules scarious, 
truncate, up to 14 lin. long, ciliate with long hairs from the back ; 
blades linear, very long-tapering to a slender point, slightly con- 
tracted at the junction with the sheath, up to 3 ft. long and over 1 in. 
wide, flat, rigid, glabrous or hirsute towards the base, scabrid above 
and along the margins, midrib very stout, pale and slightly chan- 
nelled above, lateral nerves numerous, fine. Racemes fragile, 
numerous on a common rhachis, usually simple, whorled, up to 6 in. 
long, straight or flexuous, greenish-yellow or purplish ; common 
rhachis up to more than 10 in. long, very angular, the lowest inter- 
node up to 2 in. long, the upper much shorter, smooth below, scabrid 
upwards, glabrous or bearded at the nodes ; joints linear, subclavate 
and hollow at the tip, 3-3J lin. long, convex on the back, scaberulous 
along the angles, disarticulating somewhat obliquely with a narrow 
cupuliform margin round the scar ; pedicels similar to the joints 
