160 cLxxiii. GRAMIKE^. (J. D. Hooker.) [3Ianisnrii 



Throughout the hotter parts of India, from the Panjab eastward to Burma, and 

 southward to Cexlon.— DisiaiB. Most tropical countries. 



Stem 1-2^ ft. and leaves softly hairy, leafy to the top, as thick as a crow-qniiL 

 Leaves ^10 by i'i i"-* flaccid, flat, acuminate; sheaths hirsute, inflated j hgulei 

 raised ciliate margin. Spikes i-1 in.; peduncle filiform. Sessile spike lets Vg^in. 

 diain., superposed like minute beads on the rachis, and each as it were bracteate by 

 the upper spikelet of the pair below it. 



2. W. porifera, Hack, in (Estr. Bot Zeitschr. x\l (1891) 48; sessHe 

 spikelets broadly oblong truncate deeply broadly pitted, gl. I 5-nerve(l 

 between transverse longitudinal ridges, II 3-nerved. 



SiKKiM Himalaya ; Dikceling, alt. 30OO ft., Clarice. Tenasseeim. Eelfer, 

 Habit and foliage, &c. of M. granularu. Spikelets -J^-J^j in., brownish ; callaJ 

 Btnooth or foveolate; gl. I excised at the base on both sides, leaving a rounded p^re 

 between it and the rachis.— There is a specimen of this in Herb. Wight, without 

 name or locality. 



48. OPKXVaVS, G^rtn. 

 Annual or perennial grasses. SpiJces solitary or fascicled, terete* fragile, 



joints excavate, top concave. Spikelets 2-fld., solitary and sessile in tne 

 joints (witb no upper or pedicel of one), not awned. Glumes 4, I ^'^'^^M 

 coriaceous, convex, obtuse ; II almost membranous, concave, keeled; i 

 elliptic, obtuse, hyaline, faintly 2-nerved, margins infolded, paleate, male, 

 IV as long as III, oblong, obtuse, -nerved, paleate bisexual, palea °^^^.^ 

 IV oblong, obtuse. Lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3. Grain oblong, free. 

 — Species one or two. Tropical Asiatic and African. 



OpkiuniSj as defined by Hackel and Bentham, is an artificial genus, ^^ ^ , . ^^f 

 original species, 0. corymhosuf, has solitary sessile 2-fld. spikelets on each J^^^ 

 the spike, with no obvious traces of a second, by which character it diners 

 Hd/hoellia. Of other Indian plants referred to it, O. perforatus (^otthoelUa p^ 

 jfomf^i, Roxb.) has 2 sessile l-fld. spikelets on each joint of the spike, with a lon^ 

 interposed pedicel of a second perfect or imperfect one. It is the genus 3f^*' . 

 of Kunth. Two admitted species of Rottboellia have the same structure as • 

 perjomtus, namely, .K. hirsuta, Forsk., and R. geminatay Hack. These t'^''fl^?^i^gr 

 form either a separate genus {MnesUliea)^ or a section of Rotthoellia^ which la 

 course I have adopted. Hackel describes the joints of 0. corymhosus ^.r^I? 

 thickened on one side by the presence of the confluent pedicel of a second spik^ 

 but I find no trace of this (nor can Dr. Stapfj, and he describes B. petforaW^^ 

 with one sessile spikelet on each joint, or with two on the lower joints o^J^y ' .^^ 

 find that in all the specimens two sessile spikelets is the normal condition al 

 throughout the spikes, the uppermost joints alone having but one. 



O- corymbofius, Gxrtn. /. Frud. iii. 4, t 181, f . 3 a (Op^'j^^^'^J 

 Kunth Enum. PI. i. 464; Mack. Monogr. Andmp. 317 ; Steud. Si/n-!^^^ . 



359-- Wall (Inf. Ti RR74,. Winhi Pnt r^ 17051. Ti^iih^o amJ^fi. N^^ ' ^^ > 



17 



(1891) 193; Benth. Fl. Austral, vii, 512. 



SnppL 114; Soxh. PI Coram, ii. 42, t. 181, ^ w ^».^. .. — , r--- 



Bomh. PL 233. R, punctata, Retz. Obs. iii. 11. ^gilops exaltata, ^ 

 ManL ii. App. 575 ; Retz, I c. ii, 27. . 



Dry hills, ascending to 3500 ft. in the Himalaya and Khasia Hip^^* ^^.: 

 southward to the Dkccan Peninsula (not in Ceylou).— Disteib. Tonkm, 

 trail a. . .: . ui3 



Fercnuial.' ^Sterns erect from a tuberous base, 5-6 ft., as thick as a goo&e-q 



9; WalL Cat. n. 8874; WigH Cat. n. 1723; DiitJde Grass. ^'11:^ a 

 . Fi)dd. Grass. N. Ind. 29, t. 55; Lishoa in Bomb. Journ. Nat Btst- 



Un^^'f; 



Rottboellia corymbosa, x/»«' •'. 

 81, Fl. Ind. I 355 ; Grah. Y' 



Tfc 



t ' 



'.9 



