231 
Andropogon.] clvii. gramineje (Stapf). 
Pearson , 2709 ! Humpata ; by the Nene River, Newton ; Ninde River, 14° 46' S. 
Lat., 20° 56' E. Long., Serpa Pinto , 39. 
Mozambique Distr. German East Africa : coast, north of 7° S. Lat., Hanning- 
ton ! in marshy ground near Tabora, Speke & Grant ! Gonda, on Lake 
Tanganyika, Bohm. Portuguese East Africa : Kongone River, mouth of the 
Zambesi, in wet hollows, Kirk ! Rhodesia, Appleton ! 
Also in Madagascar and throughout South Africa. 
Fairly good fodder when young {Appleton). 
14. A. huillensis, Rendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 146. Perennial, 
csespitose from a short oblique rhizome, with thick root-fibres. 
Culms erect, 3-6 ft. high, stout, terete, about 5- or more-noded, 
glabrous, very smooth, simple up to the third or fourth node. Leaf- 
sheaths firm, tight, quite glabrous and smooth, the lowest 6-9 in. 
long and sometimes compressed and keeled or like the remainder 
terete ; ligules short, firm, scarious and ciliolate ; blades linear, 
very long-tapering to a fine point, flat or folded, up to 1 ft. long and 
up to 1J lin. wide, firm and hard, the upper almost reduced to the 
midrib, convex on the back and deeply channelled on the face, 
smooth and glabrous or sparingly hairy towards the ligules, lateral 
nerves fine and close. Inflorescence an elongated scanty or ample 
spatheate panicle up to 2J ft. long, of 3-5 distant often mixed 2-4- 
rayed tiers ; spathes glabrous, the lowest resembling the preceding 
leaves ; rays filiform, erect, strict throughout or more or less arching 
upwards, if compound the lower internode often over 6 in. long. 
Spatheoles narrow, linear -lanceolate to linear, tapering to an acute 
point, up to about 3 in. long, reddish, at length tightly inrolled ; 
peduncles at length exceeding the spatheoles or permanently shorter 
(outer rays). Eacemes usually 5, subdigitate, very slender, 2-3 in. 
long, very loose, plumose, flexuous and often nodding, with bare 
bases up to 3 lin. long, or sessile ; joints finely filiform, as long 
as or slightly shorter than the spikelets, often curved, silky with 
fine long (2-3 lin.) hairs ; pedicels similar, with a barren or subulate 
glume, about 1 lin. long. Sessile spikelet linear-lanceolate, 2-2J lin. 
long, more or less tinged with purple, glabrous ; callus minute. 
Glumes firmly membranous, the lower 2-mucronulate, nerveless, 
more or less sunk between the slightly scaberulous keels, the upper 
1-nerved, mucronulate. Lower floret reduced to a linear-oblong acute 
valve, 1J lin. long, hyaline, ciliate. Upper floret § : valve narrowly 
linear-lanceolate, 2-dentate, 1 J lin. long, ciliolate ; awn a fine bristle 
4-6 lin. long, usually twisted and bent below the middle ; valvule 
minute. Anther f lin. long. 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Benguella ; wet banks of the Rio Fiengo, Gossweiler, 
2576 ! 4075 ! Huilla ; wooded meadows at Humpata, Welwitsch, 2670 ! damp 
pastures on the Monino River, Welwitsch, 2644 ! 
Welwitsch, 2644, was described by Rendle, l.c. 147, as var. minor ; it has 
smaller inflorescences and smaller spikelets and is in my opinion only a weaker 
state, 
