Rhylachne.\ 
CLVII. GRAMINE^: (Stapf). 
83 
2-nerved. Anthers 2 lin. long. Grain oblong, subterete ; scutellum 
\ the length of the grain ; hilnm large, circular, basal. Pedicelled 
spikelet more or less reduced, consisting of 2 glumes, very small or 
up to 1 lin. long. 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Benguella ; country of the Ganguellas and Ambu- 
ellas, Gossweiler, 2721 partly ! Cuiriri river, in open scrub and woods, Goss- 
weiler, 2742 ! 
2. R. rottboellioides, Desv. in Hamilt. Prodr. FI. Ind. Occ. 12 ; 
Opuscula, 75, t. 6, fig. 1. Perennial, densely tufted; innovations 
intravaginal, surrounded by the remains of the coarse basal leaf- 
sheaths. Culms very slender, 1-2J ft. high, 2-3-noded, compressed, 
glabrous, and smooth. Leaf-sheaths tight and striate, glabrous 
and smooth ; ligules very short, membranous, ciliolate, forming 
small auricles at the mouth of the sheath ; blades complicate, seta- 
ceous to very narrowly linear, the basal nearly 1 ft. long, the upper 
very much shorter, J to almost J lin. wide in the folded state, glabrous 
and smooth below, finely puberulous above, with 3-4 primary 
nerves on each side, which are slightly raised below. Racemes 
solitary, very slender, fragile, 3-6 in. long, erect, flexuous, sometimes 
rather rigid, quite glabrous, sometimes purplish ; joints 1J-2J lin. 
long, more or less clavate and hollow above, concave on the inner 
face, more or less rounded on the back and prominently nerved, 
smooth, disarticulating horizontally ; pedicels linear, curved, con- 
tiguous with and slightly shorter than the joints, much compressed, 
minutely ciliolate on the inner angle, with a prominent middle 
nerve. Sessile spikelet linear-lanceolate, acute, 2 lin. long, with 
an obscure callus, straw-coloured or purplish. Lower glume sub- 
coriaceous, acute, muticous, 1-2-mucronulate or with 1 or 2 short 
bristles, transversely rugose, with or without longitudinal grooves 
between the rugae, smooth above the middle or at least towards the 
tips, keels ciliolate above, nerves about 7, very faint ; upper glume 
hyaline-membranous, linear in profile, acute, with or without a 
short fine terminal bristle, 3-nerved. Lower floret $ : valve linear- 
lanceolate, slightly shorter than the glumes, subacute, hyaline, 
faintly 3-nerved, with a similar but shorter and narrower valvule. 
Upper floret : valve oblong, subacute, hyaline, as long as or shorter 
than the lower floret, 1- or sub-3-nerved, very minutely ciliate, 
with a minute indistinctly 2-nerved valvule. Anthers over 1 lin. 
long. Stigmas purplish, over 1 lin. long. Pedicelled spikelet re- 
duced to a minute mucro or a short fine bristle, or in robust speci- 
mens to 1 or 2 minute glumes.— Hack, in DC. Monogr. Phan. vi. 
274 ; Franch. Contr. FI. Congo Frang. 12 partly ; Rendle in Journ. 
Linn. Soc. xxx. (1895) 100. Rottboellia Rhytachne, Hack, in Bolet. 
Soc. Brot. iii. 136, t. ii. fig. 2. R. loricata, Bur. in Compt. Rend, 
ciii. (2nd Aug. 1886) p. 36, not of Trin. 
Upper Guinea. French Guinea : Futa Jallon ; between Trebeleya and Timbo, 
2000-2300 ft., Chevalier, 18298! Sierra Leone : Port Lokko, alluvial plains. 
