28 



S. decumbens grows in rather open tufts; the first shoots 

 starting extravaginally 1 to 5 ctrn. below the surface of the soil 

 and ascending in a skew direction. The shoots grow slowly; in 

 the first year reaching the surface and sending out a few leaves, 

 in the next developing a bunch of leaves and sending out roots 

 and new shoots from the lower nodes, and in the third year de- 

 veloping the flowering and fruiting culm. The internodes deve- 

 loped in the first two years, 10 to 15 in number, are short, 

 generally 1 mm. in length. From these short internodes the vege- 

 tative shoots start; then in the flowering season 4 to 5 prolonged 

 internodes are developed speedily increasing in length from the 

 first to the last, which carries the terminal panicle. 



A B 



Fig. 1. .4, a culm of S. decumbens, the lower part covered with withered sheats. 



B, the same after the sheats have been removed, a and h prophyllum 



inclosing the spikelet. Natural size. 



At the base of the first feebly prolonged internode is situated 

 a big intravaginally developed bud inclosing and completely co- 

 vering a rather reduced spikelet which usually gives fully deve- 

 loped seed (fig. 1). 



This subterranean inflorescence — or „floral bud" — is, I 

 suppose, generally developed at the same time as the terminal 

 inflorescence and is very seldom missing; only in culms shooting 

 late in the autumn I have sometimes searched it in vain. 



