204 CLxxiii, GRAMiNEiE. (J. D. Hooker.) [A7idroj)ogon, 



this; whether the African plant of that name is the same is doubtful. T have 

 Dot seen the Sciud ypeoiniens of A. commutatus alluded to by Hackel (Monogr. 

 613) ; it is not probable that they difter from Stocks' plant. 



tt Joints of spikes and pedicels of upper spikelets villous or ciliate oa 

 the sides, hairs nut concealing the sessile spikelets, dor^ally glabrous or 



sparsely rarely copiously hairy. 

 § Leaf-sheaths terete. 



71. A. Schoenanthus, Linn. Sp. Pi 1046 ; sessile spikelets ovate- 



or obovate-oblong dorsally tiat or nearly so with a deep narrow longi- 

 tudinal cleft in the centre usually below the middle and answering to a 

 ventral median rib, keels narrowly winged from or from above the niiadle, 

 II acute keel with a serrulate wing above the middle; Kunih Enum. -P'- 

 i. 493 ; Grah. Gat. Bomb. Fl. 238 ; Dutkie Grass. N. W. Ltd. 21, Fodd. Grass. 

 N. Ind. 38, t. 26. 



Hotter parts of India, wild or cultivated, from the Panjab to Burma and 

 southwd. to Travancore aiid Cetlon. — Disteib. Westwd. to tropical Africa. 



Annual? Stem 3-6 ft., erect. Leaves long, broad or narrow, finely aemninate 

 glaucous or pruinose, smooth or margins scaberulous, base rounded or cordate a^ 

 amplexicaul ; sheath glabrous; ligule oblong, scarious. Panide elongate, i--- 

 long, dense or lax, compound or decompound, rarely subsimple ; proper spatlies a 

 long as the spikes, which are as long as the peduncle or shorter. Spikes unequ^* 

 one 3-4-jointed, the other 4-6-jointed ; joints and pedicels narrowly clavaw, 

 half as long as the sessile spikelet, tips diluted and toothed, margin^s villouslf 

 ciliate with long hairs. Sessile spikelets f-i in., callus obtuse shortly bearded ; g • 

 I tip obtuse often irregularly toothed, dorsally 2-nerved or nerveless; II lanceola , 

 a-nerved, ciliate. III oblong, ciHate ; IV small, narrow, 2-tid, lobes subaa^ 

 glabrous or ciliate ; awn slender, twice as long as the gl. or longer. FedicelU 

 npikelets oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse ; gl. I glabrous or puberulous, keels ^^J^ 

 ciliate -, II ovate, acute, 3 -nerved ; III oblong, ciliate, 2-nerved.— As in the ca^ 

 of W. Nardusy this grass has been so extensively cultivated in India that it is iuip^ossiu 

 to say where it is wild, and its synonymy is so mixed up with that of A*J^<^^1^^^' 

 and the descriptions of both are so inexact, that until the whole subject of their cul^^^ 

 and distribution has been botanically investigated by a skilled observer in varioM 

 parts of India, their history must remain obscure. Botanically, A^ Sckoenanthus ^ 

 remarkable for the extraordinary difference between its broad and narrow le^J^ 

 varieties. Some forms of the narrow leaved closely resemble states of A> Ifardus*^ 

 and can only be distinguished from it by the narrow cleft in the centre of S^'j^ 

 the sessile spikelet and its corresponding rib in the ventral face of that glume. I^^ 

 figure given by Ventenat (Hort. Cels. t, 89) is unreliable for any grass. I E] 

 below Hackd's classification of the varieties with their synonymy, adding one wm 

 he does not appear to have seen, I am quite unable to distinguish his va ^^ 

 genuinus and versicolor, — ** Geranium grass, Kusa oil grass, Oil of Ginger gras* 

 Watt. 



cle linear-oblong, secondary ^J'^^^^.. 



S\ih»\i. ffenuinus, Hack. I.e. 609; panicle linear-oblong, secondary *^'"'^"™.ijg 

 ally simple, spikes ^-f in., dorsal cleft of gl. I hardly reaching the middle oH 



gl., gh IV cleft s-i way down, awn perfect, pedicelled spikelets glabrous. 

 Cat. 8794 L, t- > i- f ^ 



Var. Martini, leaf.base cordate and J-amplexlcaul, spathes and spike^^^^ 



it. 

 Fanjah. PL 175; Wight. Cat. n. 1702. A, giganteus, Eochd. in Flora (1844) 



pale or spikelets reddish. A. Schoenanthus^ Linn. L c. ;' Lisboa in Joum. Bov^^ 

 Nat. Hist. Sac. iv. (1889) 120. A. Martini, Roxb. Fl Ind. i. 277 ; Aitchis- ^^' 



242. A. nardoides a, Nees FL Afr. Anstr. 116. A. pacbnodes, Trln. . 



Acad. Fetersb. SV. VI, ii. (1824) 284, Sp. Gram. £c. t. 337. GymnautUi 

 Martini, ^nderss. in Schweinf. Beltr. Fl. jEthiop. 310. 



"t 



