Hyparrhenia.\ clvii. gramine^e (Stapf). 
367 
smooth, very rarely those of young innovation-shoots softly hairy ; 
ligules scarious, truncate, up to 1 J lin. long, glabrous, ciliolate ; 
blades linear from an equally broad or slightly attenuated base, 
tapering to a long fine point, up to over 2 ft. long by 2-4 lin., firm, 
pale green or glaucous and sometimes tinged with purple, quite 
glabrous or more or less hirsute behind and above the ligule, rarely 
higher up and then the hairs much shorter, smooth except at the very 
scabrid margins and tips. Spatheate panicle large, usually very 
loose, up to over 2 ft. long, with glabrous or shortly bearded nodes, 
bearing up to 6-9 tiers ; tiers rather distant throughout, few- to 5- 
(rarely 6-) rayed, mostly mixed ; lower compound rays up to over 
1 ft. long and about 3-noded, strictly erect ; simple rays very 
slender, filiform, 1 to over 2 in. long, frequently strongly arched or 
recurved ; lower and intermediate subtending leaves resembling the 
preceding ones with long somewhat flexuous blades, the uppermost 
spatheoloid. Spatheoles narrowly lanceolate, long- and finely 
acuminate, 1 J-2J in. long, up to 1 \ lin. wide, scarious to subherbace- 
ous, glaucous, usually tinged with purple or red or brownish, glabrous, 
boat-shaped, finally inrolled from the margins, at least in the upper 
part but never tightly so ; peduncles filiform, about 1 in. long, erect 
or curved and then their tips laterally exserted from the spatheoles, 
glabrous, rarely with a few fine hairs near the tips. Racemes sub- 
contiguous, often nodding and very sharply epinastically reflexed, 
8-9 lin. long, dense, glabrous except for the cilia of the joints and 
pedicels, 4-6-awned per pair; bases short, dorsally compressed, 
pubescent on the inner side, the longer up to 1 lin. long, exappen- 
diculate : joints linear with obliquely truncate tips, villously ciliate, 
hairs up to 1 lin. long ; pedicels similar, up to If lin. long, cilia 
shorter than in the joints. Homogamous pairs of spikelets 2 at the 
base of each raceme, forming an imperfect involucre, similar to the 
pedicelled spikelets of the heterogamous pairs but larger, green 
or at length more or less vividly coloured, frequently covered 
with a waxy bloom. Fertile spikelets linear-oblong or lanceo- 
late, 3-3J lin. long including the callus, yellowish-green or tinged 
with purp]e or brown, glabrous; callus slender, acute, up to over 
f lin. long, grooved on the back, with a beard up to over 1 lin. long. 
Glumes equal, firmly chartaceous, minutely truncate ; lower some- 
what rounded on the back downwards, 9-nerved, nerves obscure 
or delicately raised, sometimes with 2 very fine and shallow grooves 
along the middle nerve, margins narrow, involute, indexed at the 
very tips, forming short scabrid keels ; upper glume 3-nerved, 
spreadingly ciliate upwards. Lower floret reduced to a linear- 
oblong subacute ciliate sub-2-nerved hyaline valve. Upper floret 
^ : valve stipitiform, minutely 2-toothed, awn 2J-3 in. long, column 
hirsute, hairs white or fulvous, up to 4 lin. long, rarely short ; valvule 
0. Anthers over 1 lin. long. Pedicelled spikelets linear-lanceo- 
late, 3J-4 lin. long, glabrous, often turning red or purple ; lower 
