260 
cl vn. gkamineje (Stapf). [. Andropogon . 
41. A. gabonensis, Stapf in Journ. de Bot.2 me ser.ii. (1909)207. Per- 
ennial, apparently very tall. Culms terete, stout, up to 3 lin. in diam., 
glabrous, smooth, many-noded. Leaf -sheaths tight, terete, glabrous 
or more or less softly hairy in the upper part, closely striate ; ligules 
scarious, truncate, ciliolate, up to 1-| lin. long ; blades linear, tapering 
to a subsetaceous point, the lower attenuated and almost reduced to 
the stout midrib towards the base, the following as broad as the 
sheath at the base and passing into it or slightly constricted, up to 
over 2 ft. long and up to 1 in. wide, firm, green or more or less reddish, 
glabrous, very scabrid to spinulous along the margins, midrib stout 
in the lower leaves, much projecting and rounded below, fiat above, 
slender in the upper part, lateral nerves slender, 4-5 on each side. 
Inflorescence a contracted narrow elongated spatheate panicle up 
to over 3 ft. long, of up to 7 primary mixed or simple few- to 5-rayed 
tiers, the inner ray if compound often up to over 1 ft. long, and up 
to 4-noded with 2-1 -rayed secondary tiers ; spathes with usually well 
developed blades ; rays filiform, somewhat stout, the simple ones of 
a tier often very unequal, the longest up to 3 in. long. Spatheoles 
subherbaceous to scarious, linear-lanceolate, 2-2 J in. long, with short 
subulate or setaceous rudimentary blades or bladeless and acute, 
green, at length turning brown or reddish and tightly inrolled ; 
peduncles at length terminally exserted (by up to over 1J in.), erect, 
or slightly arching when flowering, then strict. Racemes 2-nate, 
very fragile, lf-2 in. long, one sessile, the other with a bare base up to 
2 or 3 lin. long, both more or less erect, greenish, sparingly hairy ; 
joints sublinear, slightly widened upwards in the lower part of the 
raceme, cuneate higher up, 1--1J lin. long, much rounded and shining 
on the back, shortly ciliate on one or on both sides, articulating 
subobliquely, with a short tooth on each side ; pedicels similar 
but stouter upwards, with 2 larger tooth-shaped appendages. Sessile 
spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 2J-3-J lin. long including the minutely 
bearded small obtuse callus, greenish. Glumes equal ; lower char- 
taceous, acutely and shortly acuminate, or minutely 2-toothed, 
shallowly grooved on the flat back, glabrous, rarely with some 
short white hairs in the groove, very minutely puberulous upwards, 
rigidly ciliolate along the keels upwards, intracarinal nerves 2 along 
the groove ; upper glume subchartaceous, boat-shaped, obliquely 
lanceolate in profile, very acute, 3-nerved, scabrid on the keel, ciliolate. 
Lower floret reduced to a lanceolate-oblong acute 2-nerved ciliate 
valve, almost as long as the glumes. Upper floret ^ : valve oblong, 
shorter than that of the lower, shortly 2-fid, glabrous, 1- or sub- 
3-nerved below ; awn up to 6 lin. long, very slender, kneed at the 
middle ; valvule oblong, truncate, about 1 lin. long, nerveless. Anthers 
1 \ lin. long. Pedicelled spikelet $ , similar to the sessile, glabrous 
or very minutely puberulous ; lower glume acute or mucronulate, 
7-11 -nerved, without a groove; upper glume 3-nerved. ciliate; 
valves hyaline, lower 3-nerved, reversedly ciliate, upper slightly 
