Lasiurus.] 
CLVII. GRAMINE^ (Stapf). 
61 
or sometimes almost shrubby at the base, with extravaginal and 
intravaginal innovation shoots. Culms from an oblique rhizome 
which is often woody and more or less covered with imbricate firm ap- 
pressedly hirsute and ultimately glabrous cataphylls or their remains, 
erect, branched from the base, up to 3 ft. high, rather slender, terete, 
smooth or the lower internodes often slightly rough and more or 
less hairy, dorsal prophylls at the base of the lower branches long 
and frequently villous. Leaf-sheaths terete, tight, the lower 
crowded, long-persistent, glabrous or sparingly ciliate upwards, 
smooth ; ligule reduced to a fringe of hairs ; blades linear, long- 
attenuated to a fine setaceous point, convolute or flat, the lower 
sometimes up to over 1 ft. long and 3 lin. wide, like the middle and 
upper which are much shorter and narrower, glaucous, glabrous or 
with a few tubercle-based hairs towards the ligule, more or less 
rough particularly along the margin, midrib broad and whitish 
above, lateral nerves slender, more or less prominent. Racemes 
erect, up to 4J in. long and 3 lin. wide, densely villous and more 
or less fragile ; joints linear, 2-2 J lin. long, dorsally much com- 
pressed, somewhat convex on the back, almost flat with a keel on 
the inner face, glabrous, pubescent or densely villous on the back, 
rather oiliolate along the angles ; pedicels narrowly linear, lj-lf 
lin. long, otherwise similar to the joints. Sessile spikelets lanceo- 
late, 3J-4J lin. long, from a very narrow annuliform callus, bearing 
dense erect hairs up to 3 lin. long, pale green. Lower glume acumi- 
nate, with the acumen 1-2 lin. long and unequally 2-toothed, flat 
and usually quite glabrous on the back, 2-keeled upwards, densely 
long-ciliate almost from the base, intracarinal nerves about 4, often 
anastomosing, slender ; upper glume boat-shaped, obliquely lanceo- 
late in profile, acute, membranous, keeled, more or less ciliate above, 
5-nerved. Lower floret : valve oblong, subacute, 3-nerved, 2 lin. 
long, hyaline, glabrous ; valvule narrowly oblong, as long as the 
valve or slightly exceeding it, 2-nerved. Upper floret nearly as 
long as the lower : valve and valvule as in the lower floret. Anthers 
1J-1J lin. long. Styles short, widened at the base ; stigmas up to 
1J lin. long, laterally exserted. Pedicelled spikelet similar to the 
sessile, 2J-3-J lin. long, with a glabrous indistinct callus and with 
both florets £ or more or less reduced. — Saccharum hirsutum, Forsk. 
FI. iEgypt.-Arab. 16. Rottboellia hirsuta, Vahl, Symb. i. 11 ; Delile, 
FI. iEgypt. Illustr. t. xiv. fig. 1 ; Hack, in DC. Monogr. Phan. vi. 
311 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. v. Afr. 699 ; Penzig in Atti 
Congr. Bot. Genoa, (1893) 366 ; Schweinf. in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 
ii. App. ii. 9. Ischcemum mastrucatum, Trin. in Mem. Acad. Petersb. 
6me ser. ii. 298. I. hirsutum , Nees in Schimp. PL Arab. Fel. n. 791; 
Steud. Syn. Pl. Glum. i. 361. Coelorhachis hirsuta , Brongn. apud 
Decne in Ann. Sci. Nat. 2me ser. ii. 13 ; Schweinf. FI. Soturba, 
Yerh. Zool.-Bot. Gesellsch. Wien, xv. (1865) 556. Elionurus hirsutus, 
Munro apud Benth. in Journ. Linn. Soc. xix. 68 ; Boiss. FI. Or. v. 
