Sorghum .] 
CLVII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
125 
grain in the markets. Some fragments of a mature panicle, collected in the 
district of Huilla ( Welwitsch, 2682 !), may also belong here. He says it is 
commonly cultivated there and is called Masamballa branca. It has glossy- 
black involute glumes and white grains. 
Another rather striking race, probably referable to this group, is represented 
by a panicle ( Busse , 2756 !) collected at Seliman Mamba, German East Africa. 
The panicle is very large, obovate with long loose fastigiate almost glabrous 
branches. The spikelets are oblong-lanceolate in flower, 34 lin. by lj lin., 
glabrous apart from the scanty callus, dark sepia-brown to almost black with 
yellowish tips ; the white grains are held between the more or less involute 
glumes which exceed them slightly in length. The pedieelled spikelets persist 
d are about 3 lin. long. 
3. Var. robustum, Stapf. Panicles erect and much contracted. Mature 
glumes glossy, blackish-maroon, appressed to the grain with the margins not 
involute ; fertile valve awnless ; grain with back and front at a right angle to 
the median plane of the spikelet or more or less twisted round as in var. invo- 
lutum, reddish, slightly exceeding the glumes. — A. sp., Pobeguin, Ess. El. Guin. 
Franc. 216, No. 1087. “ Karandeffi,” Dudgeon, Agric. & Forest Prod. Brit. 
West Afr. 138, 146. 
Upper Guinea. Liberia : within 20 miles from Kakatown, Whyte ! Northern 
Nigeria : without precise locality, Imperial Institute , 32058 ! Southern 
Nigeria : Oban, Talbot, 841 ! * 
This variety also comprises several races. The specimens communicated 
by the Imperial Institute (No. 32058) represent two forms, one with very dense 
panicles 6-7 in. by 2|— 3 in. and spikelets about 2\ lin. long, whose mature 
glumes are dark-maroon and slightly shorter than the grain, the other with less 
dense though contracted panicles, 18 in. by 4-5 in., and spikelets 3£ lin. long. 
Of this only the flowering state is known. The vernacular name of both is 
given as Karandeffi and of the larger form it is stated that it is used for 
dyeing purposes. Dudgeon (l.c.) also says that Karandeffi is grown for 
medicine and the preparation of a red dye from the stem, used for Kano leather. 
It is evidently the Faraoro of Dumas (Agr. Pays Chauds, v. i. 1905, 461) 
from the Middle Niger. He says it is grown exclusively for dyeing leather, and 
the grain is considered to give colic to animals. The other specimens mentioned 
are only known from flowering panicles and are therefore somewhat doubtful. 
14. S. margaritiferum, Stapf. Annual. Culms stout. Leaf- 
sheaths almost glabrous (? always) at the nodes ; ligules up to 1 lin. 
long, dark purple, densely ciliate from the back ; blades linear- 
lanceolate from a broad clasping base, over 1 ft. by 2-2J in., sub- 
glaucous, sparingly spotted with red, tomentose inside at the base 
of the midrib. Panicle oblong, 1-1J ft. by 3-5 in., erect, contracted, 
dense ; branches scattered or more or less verticillate, obliquely 
erect, the longest 3-6 in. long, branched almost from the base, but 
the lowest ramifications arrested, hence naked for 1-2 J in., flexuous, 
like the branchlets very slender, almost filiform, and rather rough 
all along. Racemes up to 6-noded and up to 10 lin. long, crowded ; 
joints slender to very slender, 1 to over lin. long, ciliate, cilia 
white, under J lin. long ; pedicels very similar, tips minutely dis- 
coid. Sessile spikelet oblong-lanceolate, subacute, 2J-2J lin. by 
1-1 J lin., straw-colour, flushed with bright-red below ; callus-beard 
less than J lin. long. Glumes equal, coriaceous, thinner upwards, 
lower 13-15-nerved, sometimes minutely 3-toothed, sparingly and 
