Sorghum.'] 
CLVII. GR AMINE (Stapf). 
117 
with purple, hairy just behind the ligule, otherwise glabrous. Panicle 
oblong to ovoid-oblong, often rather contracted and more or less 
nodding at first, then spreading out and more erect, up to 15 in. 
long and ultimately 6-9 in. wide ; branches slender, flexuous, 
whorled, longest up to 9 in. long and undivided to up to 2 (rarely 
3) in. from the base, distantly branched, slightly and shortly hairy 
to villous at the base, like the branchlets more or less rough, at least 
upwards. Racemes fragile, up to 5-, but mostly 2- or 3-noded, 
rarely over § in. long ; joints slender, 1J-2 lin. long, shortly ciliate, 
cilia dirty white or pale fulvous, often with a tinge of purple ; pedi- 
cels similar, slightly shorter, their tips subdiscoid. Sessile spikelet 
ovate to ovate-lanceolate, shortly acuminate to acute, 2J-3 lin. by 
1- 1 J lin., straw-colour, greenish towards the tips (at least when 
young), sometimes tinged with purple, ultimately often turning 
bright or blackish-red, particularly below ; callus-beard less than 
J lin. long. Glumes equal, coriaceous, slightly glossy below (more 
so when ripening), thinner upwards, lower usually slightly bulging 
below and somewhat depressed towards the tips, 11-13-nerved, with 
the nerves very obscure near the tips or more or less marked, sharply 
2- keeled and scabrid to spinulously ciliolate in the upper half or 
third, more or less strigillose, often glabrescent, rarely almost 
glabrous, hairs pale whitish or fulvous, loosely appressed, upper 
sharply keeled towards the tips with the keel rough, 7-nerved, more 
or less hairy. Valves conspicuously ciliate, lower lanceolate, 2J lin. 
long, upper ovate, shortly 2-lobed, 1J lin. long ; awn fine, 6-8 lin. 
long. Anthers 1J lin. long. Grain obovate-oblong, 1J lin. by 
| lin., fuscous, paler below ; embryo-mark distinct, hardly exceed- 
ing the middle of the grain. Pedicelled spikelet $ or neuter, 
early deciduous, subulate-lanceolate to linear, acutely acuminate, 
3 lin. long, pale greenish, often tinged with red or purple ; lower 
glume 9-, upper 5-nerved. — Sorghum halepense , Nees, FI. Afr. Austr. 
88, not of Pers. Andropogon verticilliflorus, Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 
393. A. Sorghum , subsp. halepensis, var. ejjusus, Hack, in DC. 
Monogr. Phan. vi. 503 (partly). A. Sorghum verticilliflorus , Piper 
in Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash, xxviii. 37. A. halepensis, var. ejjusus, 
Stapf in Dyer, FI. Cap. vii. 346 (partly). 
Nileland. British East Africa : Kavirondo, Whyte ! Rabai Hills, Taylor ! 
Mozamb. Distr. German East Africa : Usambara ; Tanga, lowland bush, 
Holst, 2342 ! and without precise locality, Buchwald, 509 ! Busse, 140 ! 
Portuguese East Africa: Molau River, Allen ! Boruma, Menyharth, 1046! 
Lower Buzi River, Swynnerton, 957 ! 966 ! Nyasaland : between Kondowe 
and Karonga, Whyte ! 
Extending from tropical Africa to Natal, the Comoros, Seychelles, Madagas- 
car and the Mascarenes. Introduced into India from South Africa as Tabucki 
grass, also to Australia, Polynesia and the West Indies. 
Piper, l.c., quotes more specimens from Kilimandjaro southwards. I 
have not seen them and refrain therefore from citing them, the more so as 
they do not extend the area of the species as here understood. According to 
Piper, Busse suggests that his samples may be reversals from the cultivated 
