112 
CLVII. GRAMINE^ (Stapf). 
[Sorghum. 
long ; pedicels- similar, slightly shorter. Sessile spikelets narrowly 
lanceolate, acute, 3J lin. by 1-1 J lin., pale straw-colour, greenish in 
the upper half or third, rarely flushed with purple-brown, finely 
awned ; callus beard J lin. long. Glumes about equal, coriaceous 
and more or less glossy to or beyond the middle, then subherbaceous- 
papery, lower about 13-nerved, 2-keeled from the middle upwards 
with the keels spinulously ciliolate, more or less finely white-strigil- 
lose, glabrescent to almost glabrous, upper 7-nerved, with a slender 
scabrid keel upwards, usually sparingly hairy. Valves ciliate, lower 
broad-oblong, 2J lin. long, upper ovate, 2-lobed to a quarter or a 
third, 1J lin. long ; awn up to 8 lin. long. Anthers 1J lin. long. 
Grain narrowly obovate in outline, dorsally compressed, 1J by 1 lin., 
reddish-brown ; embryo-mark distinct, equalling or exceeding half 
the grain. Pedicelled spikelets linear to linear-lanceolate, acute, 
3- 3J lin. long, glabrous, $ , usually perfect, sometimes more or less 
reduced ; lower glume 9-, upper 7-8-nerved ; anthers 1 lin. long. — 
S. halepense, var. Crupina, Schweinf. PL Nilot. 43 (Ehrenberg’s 
plant) ; Andropogon Sorghum, subsp. halepensis, var. virgatus, Hack, 
in DC. Monogr. Phan. vi. 504 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. 
v. 724 (partly). A. Sorghum exiguus, Piper in Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash, 
xxviii. 32 (excl. Holcus exiguus, Forsk.). 
Nileland. Nubia : between Old Dongola and Meroe, Bromfield, 32 ! between 
Khartoum and Berber, Schweinfurth, 529 ! 538! Khartoum, Kotschy, 316; Kor- 
dofan, Kotschy, 173, partly ! 
Hackel, l.c., also quotes it from the White Nile, Wad Schellai, Schweinfurth , 
iii. 136, and Piper from Matamma, Gallabat, Abyssinia, Schweinfurth 1428. 
Perrottet , 928, also referred to A. Sorghum, var. virgatus, by Hackel, is probably 
the next species. S. virgatum extends along the Nile as far as the delta ; but 
the specimens seen by me from Cairo are meagre and the spikelets purplish- 
brown. 
Forskal’s Holcus exiguus, the basis of Piper’s Andropogon Sorghum exiguus, 
according to the specimens in Forskal’s herbarium in Copenhagen, is Sorghum 
halepense, Pers. 
2. S. lanceolatum, Stapf. Annual. Culms rather slender, up to 
10 ft. high, simple (?) or with some suberect branches. Leaf -sheaths 
delicately silky -pubescent at the nodes, otherwise glabrous ; ligules 
very short ; blades linear to linear-lanceolate from a rather broad 
and often rounded base, up to 15 in. by 1 in., pale green, flushed or 
mottled with purple, glabrous except for a dense zone of hairs just 
behind the ligule, midrib rather prominent and acutely keeled below 
in the larger leaves. Panicle ovate-oblong to lanceolate in outline, 
loose, more or less nodding, 9-15 in. long ; branches obliquely erect 
or spreading, flexuous, sparingly hairy at the base, lowest branches 
4- 7 in. long, loosely branched from low down, like the branchlets 
finely scabrid. Racemes fragile, 2-4-noded, up to 1 in. long ; joints 
slender, 2-2J lin. long, white-ciliate, cilia J-f lin. long ; pedicels 
similar, of equal length or slightly shorter. Sessile spikelets lanceo- 
late, acutely acuminate, 3-4 lin. by 1-1J lin., straw-colour, slightly 
