Hyparrhenia.] clvii. gramineas (Stapf), 
3-15 
up to over 2 ft. by up to 9 lin., firm, pale green, often slightly tinged 
with purple or brown, glabrous, hirsute just above the ligule, more 
or less rough on the upper side, scaberulous to scabrid along the 
margins, midrib stout downwards and rounded on the back, rather 
wide, white or pinkish on the upper side, primary lateral nerves 
4-7 on each side, slender. Spatheate panicle (except the 
secondary panicles of the mixed branches below it) leafy, narrowly 
oblong, loose or somewhat contracted, often decompound, up to 
over 2| ft. by 3-4 in. ; primary internodes 7-11, the lowest about 
6 in. long, the following gradually, the uppermost more rapidly 
decreasing in length ; tiers mixed, except the uppermost, the lowest 
consisting of one or two 6-5-noded compound rays with, in the lower 
part, 2-1-rayed tertiary tiers, the intermediate and upper 4-5- 
(rarely 6-) rayed, with 2-4-rayed secondary tiers, ultimate (simple) 
rays about f-J in. long, arching ; subtending leaves like the pre- 
ceding leaves — except the uppermost which become rapidly spath- 
aceous or spatheoloid — with well-developed blades which, however, 
do not reach to the top of the panicle. Spatheoles lanceolate, 
acutely acuminate, 1-lf in., rarely only 8-10 lin. long, 1^-lf lin. 
wide in profile, scarious, glabrous or sometimes finely and sparingly 
hairy upwards, reddish-brown to brownish-purple, more or less 
horizontal or slightly nodding, at length loosely inrolled from the 
margins ; peduncle filiform, strongly arching or recurved, at length 
shorter than the spatheole by about a quarter or less or just equalling 
it, bearded upwards, hairs of beard greyish or pale fulvous, stiff, 
minutely tubercle-based, up to 3 lin. long. Racemes laterally 
exserted, more or less vertical during flowering, subcontiguous or 
slightly diverging, at length epinastically deflexed, 5-9 lin. long, 
greyish-villous, dense, 5-7-awned per pair ; bases very short, densely 
pubescent in the fork and bearded upwards, tips obliquely truncate, 
obscurely or shortly auricled; joints filiform, 1 lin. long, shortly white- 
ciliate ; pedicels similar, somewhat longer. Homogamous pair of 
spikelets 1 at the base of the lower raceme only. Fertile spikelets 
linear-oblong, 2J-3 lin. long, pale or slightly reddish, their colour 
mostly hidden by the abundant hairs ; callus up to \ lin. long, sub- 
obtuse, shortly bearded. Glumes equal, subchartaceous ; lower 
narrowly truncate, somewhat flattened on the back with rounded sides, 
9- nerved (nerves very faint downwards), hairy all over, hairs whitish, 
straight, up to 1 lin. long, margins very narrowly involute up to over 
two-thirds, then indexed from the fine keels whose cilia are merged 
in the general t omentum ; upper glume obtuse to deltoid-truncate, 
3-nerved, reversedly ciliate upwards. Lower floret reduced to a 
narrowly oblong-obtuse finely 2-nerved upwards ciliate hyaline valve. 
Upper floret ^ : valve stipitiform, 2-dentate, teeth ciliolate ; awn 
10- 20, (mostly about 12-18) lin, long, slender, fulvous, hirtellous, 
the hairs almost equalling the diameter of the awn ; valvule an ovate 
hyaline scale, J lin. long, or 0. Anthers § lin. long. Pedicelled 
