288 TRIANDRIA DIGYNIA. PaJllCUIH. 



me with the only specimens of this rare grass which I have 

 yet met with, and had lie not informed that this was consi- 

 dered to be P. dimidiatum I should have been inclined to 

 have taken it for an Jschaemum. 



SECT. II. Spikes paired. 



10. P. conjugatum. R. 



Spikes conjugate, secund. Flowers solitary, sessile, awn- 

 less. Corol, with an accessary neuter valve. 



A slender, soft, villous, half creeping species ; a native of 

 Coromandel. It differs from P. dislachyon in the number of 

 the spikes being constantly two, and the flowers always soli- 

 tary and sessile. To these marks of distinction may be added 

 that the valves of the calyx are three-nerved, and the acces- 

 sary one particularly large. 



11, P. squarrosum. Linn. sp. pi. ed. Willd. i. 345. Retz. 

 Obs. iv. 15. and v. t.l. 



Culms creeping, from ten to twenty inches long. Spikes 

 paired, horizontal, rachis articulate ; flowers in a fascicle on 

 the upper end of each joint of the rachis. 



Cenchrus muricatus. Mant. 302. 



P. dimidiatum. Bnrm. Ind. 25. t. S,J\ 2. 



A native of dry sandy ground near the sea. 



Culms branchy, creeping, with their flower-bearing* extre- 

 mities sub-erect ; from ten to twenty inches long. Leaves 

 short, but rather broad, and covered with soft hair ; sheath 

 large, downy, involving- most of the culms. Spikes two, ter- 

 minal, spreading, horizontal, or ascending like a pair of 

 horns, secund. Rachis composed of from four to eight, oblong 

 joints, divided by a waved ridge ; on each side of the ridge 

 membranaceous. Floicers collected in sessile bundles of from 

 four to eight, alternately disposed on the upper end of each 

 joint. Calyx, the exterior one minute, and lanceolate ; the 

 second large, embracing loosely the corol, pointed, and stri- 

 ated ; the inner one nearly as small as the exterior, tapering 



