344 
cl vii. gramine;e (Stapf). \Hypanhenia. 
truncate, more or less (often densely) bearded like the peduncle ; 
joints finely filiform, shortly ciliate, up to over 1 J lin. long ; pedicels 
very similar, slightly longer and finer. Homogamous pair of spikelets 
1 at the base of the lower raceme only. Fertile spikelet linear-oblong, 
2J-3 lin. long, pale with a tinge of violet or dark purple along the 
shallow median depression of the lower glume or dark purple almost 
all over; callus cuneate, subacute, variegated with a white band 
across the junction with the free part of the glume, shortly bearded. 
G-lumes equal, subchartaceous ; lower truncate, flat on the back with 
a shallow median depression, rounded on the sides, more or less hairy 
to villous, rarely glabrous, 7-9-nerved, margins narrowly involute, 
indexed towards the tips, the fine keels rigidly ciliolate ; upper glume 
thinner, obtuse or deltoid-truncate, 3-nerved, spreadingly ciliate 
upwards. Lower valve reduced to an oblong obtuse loosely ciliate 
faintly 2-nerved hyaline valve. Upper floret ^ : valve stipitiform, 
with two minute glabrous teeth, sparingly ciliolate below them ; awn 
10-15 lin. long, fulvous, rarely the hirtellous column darker ; val- 
vule 0. Anthers J lin. long. Pedicelled spikelets or neuter, linear- 
lanceolate, 2J-3J lin. long, glabrous or hairy ; lower glume acute 
to mncronulate, 9-nerved, rigidly ciliolate along the keels ; upper 
acute, 3-nerved, ciliate ; valves hyaline, linear-oblong (the lower) 
to spatheolate-linear (the upper), 1-nerved, ciliate, the upper if 
with a <£ flower up to 2J lin. long. Homogamous spikelets similar 
to the pedicelled member of the heterogamous pairs, but slightly 
larger, up to 4 lin. long. 
Nile Land. Abyssinia. : Tigre ; ( without precise locality,* Schimper, 466 ! 
1006 ! 1052 (a. 1862, not a. 1838) ! Samen ! Agrima, 6000 ft., Schimper, 
138 ! 8Q2J Bellaka, 7000 ft., Schimper, 469 ! Arwassa, 6000-7000 ft., Schimper, 
749 !/ and without precise locality,) Schimper, 1011 ! 
A specimen collected by Schweinfurth & Riva (no. 2010), on Mount Bizen, 
in Amasen, Eritrea, very probably belongs here. It has shed all its racemes, 
except a few still enclosed in their spatheoles and apparently arrested in their 
development. The specimen is otherwise noteworthy on account of its very 
long (up to over 9 in.) and-unusually firm persistent basal sheaths. 
^ 31. H. rudis, Staff. Perennial, from 8-15 ft. high, csespitose, 
with extra vaginal innovations covered in bud with glabrous or 
upwards sparingly hairy cataphylls. Culms erect, rooting (stilt- 
roots) from the lowest nodes, terete, stout, towards the base up to 
5 lin. thick (“ finger-thick,” Gossweiler ), glabrous, waxy-pruinose 
below the nodes or the lower internodes almost all along, simple, 
with 8-11 internodes below the panicle or emitting mixed branches 
+rom the intermediate and upper, rarely from almost all, inter- 
nodes. Leaf-sheaths terete, very firm, tight, glabrous, smooth, 
their scarious margin often produced into an auricle of varying size 
and shape ; ligules scarious, truncate or rounded, laterally adnate 
to the auricles of the sheath, up to 3 lin. long ; blades linear from a 
more or less narrowed base, tapering upwards to a long fine point, 
