Imperata ,] 
CLVII. GRAMINEZE (Stapf). 
89 
Nile Land. Bongo : Gir, Schweinfurth, 1533 ! Uganda : Toro to Semliki 
valley, 3500-4500 ft., Doggett ! East side of Lake Victoria, 4000 ft., Battis- 
combe, 684 ! British East Africa : Rabai Hills, Taylor ! 
Mozambique Distr. Zanzibar, Last l Hildebrandt, 1102 ! Nyasaland : Shire 
Highlands, Buchanan, 58 ! Mount Sochi, Kirk ! Portuguese East Africa : 
Nyasa ; Msala River, Allen, 124 ! 
Imperata cylindrica, the £ alang alang 1 * * * 5 of the Malays, often covers enormous 
areas and when entering cultivated land may become a serious pest. The type 
is limited to the Mediterranean region as far as Turkestan and North-west 
India. The varieties and the type, although on the whole pretty distinct 
within their areas, often pass into each other, chiefly along the confines of their 
areas, or they possibly lose their distinctive characters under particular local 
conditions, when their separation becomes almost impossible. 
23. MISCANTHIDIUM, Stapf. 
Spikelets all alike, 2-nate, those of each pair unequally pedicelled 
on the articulate and tough or very tardily disarticulating rhachis of 
panicled racemes, falling from their pedicels. Florets 2 ; lower reduced 
to an empty valve ; upper always $ . Glumes equal, chartaceous to 
coriaceous, lower dorsally flattened, more or less distinctly 2-keeled, 
with indexed margins and a variable number of intracarinal nerves, 
upper 1-3-nerved, keeled. Valves hyaline, of the lower floret 
muticous or mucronate, of the upper awned ; awn perfect. Valvules 
small, hyaline, nerveless. Lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3. 
Stigmas usually laterally exserted. Grain oblong to linear-oblong ; 
embryo half the length of the grain. — Perennial, erect ; blades long, 
narrow, midrib very stout or the whole blade terete (tropical African 
species) ; ligules membranous ; panicle much-branched, often large, 
silky and showy ; spikelets usually villous, and with an involucre of 
hairs at the base. 
Species 4, in Tropical Africa (south of the equator) and South Africa. 
Panicles rather dense, silvery, with joints and pedicels 
1|— 2 lin. long ; spikelets up to 2^ lin. long ; hairs 
of callus H lin. long 1 . M. teretifolium. 
Panicles loose, tawny, with joints and pedicels 2-3 lin. 
long ; spikelets up to 2 lin. long ; hairs of callus 
up to 1 lin. long 2 . M. Gossweileri. 
1. M. teretifolium^ Stapj^ Culms 6-12 ft. high, erect. Leaves 
congested at the base ; sheaths tight, firm, terete, quite smooth, 
pallid, their remains long persisting around the base of the culms ; 
ligules broad-ovate or oblong, 1-2 lin. long, scarious, hairy on the 
back ; blades terete, quill-like, slightly channelled towards the base, 
over 3 ft. long, up to 2J lin. in diam., pale green, smooth, glabrous. 
Panicle narrow, erect, silvery- villous, about 2 ft. long and up to 4 in. 
wide ; rhachis smooth, terete, or angular above, primary branches 
up to 8 in. long, very slender, often flexuous, loosely divided near 
the base. Racemes filiform, tough ; joints subcapillary, 1J-2J lin. 
long, pubescent with some longer hairs or almost glabrous ; pedicels 
