300 
clvii. GRAMiNEiE (Stapf). [ Hyparrhenia . 
branches, passing into a spatheate panicle above the fourth or fifth 
node, erect, firm, slender or somewhat stout (to 2 lin. in diam.), 
glabrous and smooth. Leaf-sheaths terete, or bluntly keeled up- 
wards, rather firm, more or less hirsute, with tubercle-based hairs 
in the upper part, or quite glabrous ; ligules firmly scarious, rounded, 
lin. long; blades linear from a slightly and very gradually 
narrowed base, tapering to a long fine point, up to almost 2 ft. by 
2J-4 lin., firm and somewhat rigid, dull green or reddish, glabrous 
or coarsely hirsute towards the base on the upper side, rough above 
and scabrid to spinulously ciliolate on the margins ; midrib somewhat 
stout towards the base, conspicuous and whitish above, primary 
lateral nerves 3-d on each side, slender, prominent. Spatheate 
panicle narrow, compound, subfoliate, interrupted and rather lax 
below, contracted above ; primary internodes 6-10, the lowest 4-7 in. 
long, the upper rapidly decreasing ; tiers 4 -6-rayed, the lower mixed, 
with few and mostly compound rays, bearing secondary and some- 
times a few tertiary tiers, ultimate (simple) rays lj-f, rarely \ in. 
long, very slender ; lower and intermediate subtending leaves like 
the preceding leaves, with blades gradually decreasing upwards, 
higher up spathaceous, with very narrow blades, reaching to the 
top of the panicle. Spatheoles narrowly lanceolate, long-acuminate, 
1 J-lf in. long, thinly scarious, sparingly and softly hairy or glabrous, 
at length loosely inrolled from the margins ; peduncles filiform, up 
to 1 in. or more long, permanently shorter than the spatheole, 
with some long fine white hairs in the upper part. Racemes laterally 
exserted, parallel or the lower spreading, somewhat loose, greenish or 
reddish, 7-8 lin. long, 4-5-awned per pair, the lower raceme subses- 
sile, the other with a slender filiform obliquely truncate and minutely 
auricled base, up to 1 J lin. long and beset with some long fine spread- 
ing white hairs ; joints slender, filiform, 1J lin. long, obliquely trun- 
cate and produced into a minute scarious auricle, ciliate, cilia white, 
up to 1 lin. long ; pedicels similar if not slightly longer. Homo- 
gamous pair of spikelets 1 at the base of the lower raceme (rarely of 
both). Fertile spikelets linear-oblong, including the callus 3 lin. 
long, pale below, reddish upwards or purplish-brown all over ; callus 
very acute, § lin. long, densely and shortly bearded. Glumes equal, 
chart aceous, the lower narrowly truncate, slightly flattened and 
sometimes longitudinally depressed on the back, rounded on the 
sides, glabrous or more or less, but mostly loosely, hairy, 9-nerved, 
nerves very slender, the inner ones slightly prominent, at least in the 
upper part, margins narrowly involute, indexed only in the tips, 
keels scabrid, upper glume deltoid-subtruncate, glabrous, 3-nerved, 
ciliate upwards. Lower floret reduced to a linear-oblong obtuse 
erect- ciliate hyaline valve 2 lin. long. Upper floret ^ : valve 
stipitiform with narrow hyaline margins and short ciliolate or obscure 
teeth ; awns slender, about If in. long, column shortly fulvously 
hirtellous. Valvule 0. Anthers over 1 lin. long. Pedicelled 
