130 
[ Sorghum . 
CLVII. GKAMINE^E (Stapf). 
The most commonly cultivated Sorghum of Egypt, also grown in Arabia and 
more sparingly in India and Afghanistan. The Sudan specimens represent 3 
distinct varieties, but owing to lack of material it has not been possible to refer 
them with certainty to any of Koernicke’s varieties described above. They 
are distinct enough to deserve being mentioned and briefly characterised. They 
are : — 
Glumes dull whitish with a brown band across just 
below the tip, more or less white-hairy ; grains 
shortly exserted with very broad and almost flat- 
tened pale yellow tops vern. n. Aklimawi. 
Glumes more or less glossy and almost glabrous without 
a dark band across the tips ; grains more dis- 
tinctly compressed and exserted. 
Glumes straw-colour, frequently flushed with brown 
or almost black at the base ; grains ivory- colour vern. n. Safra Kohia. 
Glumes burnt-sienna colour to blackish, particularly 
below; grains reddish-ochre ... ... ... vern. n. Ha maizi. 
This is also the “ Durra ” of the United States of N. America, where it has 
been grown as a grain corn to some extent since 1874. 
18. S. Caffrorum, Beauv. Agrost. 131, 178. Annual. Culms 
stout, about 6 ft. high. Leaf-sheaths longer than the internodes 
except the uppermost, very finely pubescent at the nodes ; ligules 
very short, long-ciliate from the back ; blades lanceolate from a 
broad, more or less clasping base, long-acuminate, up to 2 ft. by 3 in., 
green, often flushed with purple, pubescent to tomentose inside 
above the ligule, usually pubescent on the back at the junction with 
the sheath. Panicle oblong to ovoid-oblong, erect or recurved, 
usually very dense, J to 1 ft. by 2-4 in. ; branches usually verti- 
eillate, erect or nodding when mature, rather stout below, stiff or 
flexuous, the longest 3-5 in. long and undivided to about half-way 
from the base or" apparently up to over 1 in. owing to the arrest of 
the lowest branchlets, villous at the base, all the divisions scabrid 
and pubescent or ciliate, particularly downwards. Racemes com- 
pact, very crowded, mostly 3-4-noded and 5-6 lin. long ; joints 
from less than 1 lin. to 1 lin. long, flattened, white-ciliate, longest 
cilia almost as long as the joint ; pedicels very similar, | lin. long. 
Sessile spikelet elliptic-ovate, shortly acute, almost apiculate, 2J- 
2f lin. by J-1J lin., straw-colour or whitish under the loosely villous 
whitish tomentum, remaining pale or turning dark to a glossy black 
when mature ; callus-beard about £ lin. long. Glumes equal, thinly 
coriaceous, terminating with a small hyaline whitish point, tough, 
tomentum persistent or disappearing more or less on maturity ; 
lower finely 11-13-nerved, the keel-nerves (the 2nd or 3rd from the 
margins situated in the fold) slightly raised towards the tips indi- 
cating keels, indexed margins flattened out when mature ; upper 
almost as broad as the lower, 7-nerved, very finely and obscurely 
keeled. Valves ciliate; lower broad-oblong, 3-nerved, about 2 lin. 
long ; upper broad and shortly ovate, shortly 2-lobed, 1J lin. long, 
