351 
Byparrhenia.\ Clvii. gramine^e (Stapf). 
1-1 J in. long, column brown, minutely hirtellous ; valvule 0. Pedi- 
celled spikelets <$, narrowly lanceolate 1 , acutely acuminate, 3-4 J 
lin. long, reddish, indumentum as in the fertile spikelets ; lower 
glume subherbaceous, about 11 -nerved, more or less mucronate or 
muticous, finely ciliolate upwards ; upper very acute, subchart a- 
ceous with broad hyaline ciliate margins, 3-nerved ; valves lanceolate- 
oblong, hyaline, ciliate, the lower broader, almost as long as the 
glumes, 3-nerved, the upper slightly shorter, 1 -nerved ; anthers 
2 lin. long. 
Nile Land. British East Africa : Nairobi, Linton , 124 !\ Dowson, 240 ! 
dSfoLfiO 
^ 36. H. cyanescens A Stapf. Perennial ( Pobegum ) ; up to over 6 ft. 
high, only known from the upper part. Culms terete, smooth, 
solid, pruinose below the nodes, with barren branches from the 
lower nodes. Leaf-sheaths tight, terete, glabrous, shorter than the 
internodes, produced at the mouth into firm oblong auricles over 
1 lin. long; ligules scarious, truncate, glabrous, laterally adnate 
to the auricles ; blades linear from a very long-attenuated narrow 
base, tapering to a fine point, up to over 1J ft. by 3J lin., firm, 
glaucous, glabrous, scabrid at the margins ; midrib stout, of the 
lower leaves semiterete at the base, whitish and over J lin. wide on 
the upper side ; primary lateral nerves very slender, 3-4 on each 
side. Spatheate panicle obovate-oblong, ample, up to almost 2 ft. 
long, of 8-10 downwards distant, upwards more approximate 
mostly 3-4-rayed often mixed tiers ; compound rays often 2 in one 
tier, up to 5-noded with 2-3-rayed secondary tiers, the lowest up to 
1 ft. long ; simple rays 1-1 J in. long ; subtending leaves with usually 
well developed upwards rapidly decreasing blades, glabrous, glaucous. 
Spatheoles narrowly linear to linear -lanceolate, acutely acuminate, 
up to over 2 in. long, turning dull reddish, at length more or less 
loosely inrolled ; peduncles finely filiform, up to 2 in. long, sub- 
terminally exserted, arched or recurved in a semicircle, beset with 
long spreading tubercle-based silky hairs for about 3-4 lin. below the 
tips . 'Racemes more or less diverging, at length epinastically deflexed, 
somewhat loose, J-l in. long, up to 11-awned per pair, the lower 
subsessile, the upper with a narrowly linear base up to. § lin. long., 
both bases pubescent in the fork, hirsute upwards, with the -hairs 
up to 2 and even 2J lin. long, their tips oblique, sometimes minutely 
auriculate ; joints and pedicels filiform, slender, 1J lin. long, sub- 
obliquely truncate, densely and equally ciliate, cilia J lin. long. 
Homogamous pair of spikelets 1 at the base of the lower raceme only. 
Fertile spikelets linear-oblong, 2-2 J (rarely 2j) lin. long, whitish 
or bluish downwards, reddish towards the tips ; callus short, sub- 
obtuse, dark on the back below a white cross bar, with a dense white 
beard of the same length. Glumes equal, lower chartaceous, 
minutely truncate, flat on the back, smooth or more or less lineate- 
scaberulous upwards and towards the sides or laterally pubescent, 
