77 
Chasmopodium.] clvii. gramine^e (Stapf). 
( hia-cJfo.*') 
1. C. caudatum^ /Stapf. Annual, rooting from the lower nodes. 
Culms up to 10 ft. high, 8- or more-noded, terete below, branched 
above, with the branches short, simple, solitary, and appressed, all 
flowering. Leaf -sheaths terete, slightly keeled above, hirsute with 
tubercle-based hairs or glabrous, sometimes bearded at the nodes, 
the lower longer than the nodes ; ligules a line of short hairs ; blades 
lanceolate-linear from a base which is narrower than the sheath, 
setaceously acuminate, 10-20 in. long, 4-6 lin. wide, flat, somewhat 
flaccid, more or less scabrous on both sides, and shortly hairy or 
glabrous, midrib stout, whitish above, primary nerves 3-4 on each 
side. Racemes up to 3 in. long, erect, 1J-2 lin. in diam., pale green, 
nearly glabrous, caudate owing to the first glume of the terminal 
spikelet being produced into a scabrid somewhat twisted green tail, 
5-7 lin. long ; joints 2| lin. long, nearly as long as the sessile spikelet, 
much clavate from a narrow-linear base, hollow above, scaberulous 
on the convex back, slightly concave on the inner face, ciliate along 
the outer angle ; pedicels about as long as and similar to the joints, 
or almost linear, separated from them by a broad oblong space. 
Sessile spikelet broadly ovate, from a very narrow annuliform 
shortly bearded and well marked off callus, 3-3J lin. long, pale. 
Glumes equal ; lower coriaceous including the upwards widened 
keels, subobtuse, 2-toothed, with the margins narrowly inflexed, 
very convex, almost smooth on the back, glabrous, nerves numerous, 
visible in transmitted light as are the anastomosing venules of the 
keel-wings ; upper glume broad-ovate, somewhat obtuse, sub- 
coriaceous, with a short glabrous subapical wing on the keel, 7-9- 
nerved, ciliolate. Valve of lower floret similar to the lower glume, 
but hyaline, entire, finely 3-nerved, ciliolate, with a similar 2-nerved 
valvule ; of upper floret slightly shorter, broad-ovate, obtuse, 
hyaline, obscurely 3-nerved or nerveless, ciliolate, with a similar 
glabrous 2-nerved valvule. Anthers up to 1 lin. long. Stigmas 
short. Pedicelled spikelet ovate to ovate-oblong, compressed, 4 lin. 
long. Lower glume entire, with a greenish scabrous wing on one 
keel ; upper glume with an eccentric upwards winged keel. Lower 
floret barren ; upper g. — Rottbcellia caudata, Hack, in DC. Monogr. 
Phan. vi. 298 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. PI. Afr. 698. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone : Bumbuna, 650 ft., Thomas, 3346 ! 3807 ! 
French Guinea : Timbo, Pob&guin, 1805 ! Southern Nigeria : Lagos, Mac- 
Gregor, 168 ! French Sudan : Macina, Chevalier, 24920 ! 
.Nile Land. Jur : Ghattas, Seriba, Schweinfurth, 2357 i 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Malange, Buchner, 36. 
Rottbodlia Kerstingii Pilger in Engl. Jahrb. xxxiv. 126, seems to differ from 
C. caudatum only in its perennial duration, forming elongated rhizomes from 
which arise solitary erect and distant culms, and in the slightly larger spikelets. 
It was collected at Kirikiri, in Togo ( Kersting , 237). 
( HcvcJfc.) 
2. C. Afzelii^ Stapf. Culms reed-like, over 5 ft. high, erect, some- 
what compressed, branched, the lower leafy, the upper solitary or 
