xi, c, i Merrill: Plants from Sorsogon Province, Luzon 3 



latis, racemose dispositis, 4 ad 5 mm longis; glumis exterioribus 

 inaequalibus, acutis vel acuminatis, 5- vel 7-nerviis, fertilibus 

 1 ad 3, 7- vel 9-nerviis, circiter 3 mm longis. 



A glabrous slender, simple or but slightly branched, ap- 

 parently annual grass, the lower parts of the stems prostrate, 

 rooting, the leafy parts erect or ascending, 20 to 30 cm high, 

 the culms smooth, glabrous, striate, about 1 mm in diameter. 

 Leaves membranaceous, glaorous, narrowly lanceolate, 4 to 6 

 cm long, 3 to 5 mm wide, acuminate; ligule membranaceous, 

 hyaline, about 1.5 mm long; sheaths close, shorter than the 

 internodes, their margins prominently ciliate with short hairs. 

 Panicles simple, exserted, oblong-pyramidal, 5 to 9 cm long, the 

 branches 5 to 11, spreading or ascending, distant, solitary, 2 to 

 4 cm long, the spikelets racemosely arranged on the simple 

 branches, 5 to 12 on each branch. Spikelets oblong to oblong- 

 lanceolate, somewhat compressed, purplish, 4 to 5 mm long, their 

 pedicels minutely scabrid, about 1 mm long, apparently continu- 

 ous. Empty glumes 2, the first oblfeng-lanceolate, acuminate 

 or slightly apiculate, obscurely keeled, 5-nerved, about 2.7 mm 

 long, the second similar to the first but about 3.2 mm long. 

 Flowering glumes 1 to 3 in each spikelet, the rachilla produced 

 above the empty glumes and between each flowering glume, the 

 lower rachilla joints nearly 1 mm long, the upper ones 1.2 to 

 1.5 mm long, glabrous, extending beyond the upper flowering 

 glume and ending in a greatly reduced empty glume which often 

 appears as a mere rudiment or slight enlargment of the end of 

 the rachilla, the glumes 7- or 9-nerved, about 3.8 mm long, 

 oblong-lanceolate, slightly apiculate, usually acute, the basal part 

 slightly rounded-inflated and obscurely sulcate between the ner- 

 ves, the fourth and fifth glumes, when present, similar to the 

 third one but slightly shorter. Caryopsis black, smooth, shin- 

 ing, narrowly oblong, cylindric, about 1 mm long. 



Luzon, Province of Sorsogon, Lake Polog, Bur. Sci. 23607 Ramos, 

 August 27, 1915, growing along the border of the lake either in wet 

 swampy places or in shallow water. 



The genus is rather anomalous in several respects, the plant in habit 

 strongly resembling some forms of Panicum nodosum Kunth, except in 

 its shorter culms, and some forms of Ichnanthus pallens Munro, but its 

 floral structure removes it at once from the Paniceae. Often but a single 

 flowering glume is present in each spikelet, but frequently two are present, 

 and less frequently three. The rachilla is elongated between all the glumes, 

 and extends above the last flowering glume, bearing at its apex a very 

 greatly reduced empty glume, so reduced at times as to appear merely 

 as the slightly enlarged tip of the rachilla. The rachilla does not appear 

 to be jointed, but the pedicels appear to be jointed at the base, for at 

 least they separate from the rachis very easily. 



