194 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



the plains of the N.-W. Provinces, where cattle eat it when young 



and green. 



Rottbcellia, Linn. fit. 



R. exaltata, Linn, fil, Suppl. 114; Roxb. Corom. PL Plate 157, 

 Stegosia Cochin- ChincHsis , Loureira PL Cochinchinens, 51. 



Ver. Barsali, Buret, Sooate, Konda, Ranookoo. Grows all over India, 

 Ceylon, Burma, Cochin-China, Java, China and Philippine Islands ; 

 also in Africa and North Australia. I received specimens from 

 Yellapa in North Kanara. In Himalaya it ascends up to 4 — 5,000 ft. 

 R . r/ibbosa, Hack. 



An erect grass. Stem 2 feet and more, leafy, smooth and glabrous, 

 when devoid of the sheaths, branched from the upper half or two- 

 thirds. Branches small, sheaths shorter than the internodes, striated, 

 closely appressed, rather smooth or slightly hisped with few hairs. 

 Nodes with a ring of hairs. Ligula 1 lin. long, fimbriato-celiolate. 

 Leaves 5 — 6 in. long, 5 lin. broad in the middle, acuminate at the 

 end and narrow at the base, ending gradually into the sheath, 

 scabrous, studded with hairs minutely tubercled at their base ; 

 middle rib white, prominent. Panicle long, terminal, consisting 

 of many branches with a bract or leaf sheath at the base of each 

 branch. Spikes of a pale yellow colour, friable, slender, glabrous, 

 about h — 1 in. long, 1 — 2 in the axils, solitary on each peduncle with 

 a close sheathing bract at the base of each. Articles equal in length 

 to sessile spikelet. Sessile spikelet broadly oval, obtuse, 1 lin. long. 

 1st glume rather gibbous at the lower part, and there bearing very 

 short sparsely scattered hairs, chartaceous 3 to 5 nerved ; the edges 

 are slightly turned in at the upper part. 2nd glume a little smaller, 

 ovate, chartaceous, but thinner than the first, indistinctly 3-nerved. 

 3rd glume smaller than the second, hyaline, with no trace of 

 flower in the axil. 4th smaller than the 3rd, palea not seen. In 

 some spikelets seeds are found. Pedicillate spikelet consists of a 

 single lanceolate, or rather of a spatulate glume, with the upper end 

 being slightly bent inwards or towards the rachis. No hairs. 



This grass has a very close affinity to R. formosa, R. Br., except 

 that the hairs on the lower part of the first glume, which is bulged 

 out or gibbous, are very few and short. No hairs on the upper part 

 of the articles. The pedicillate spikelet has no wing. 



