Andropogon. triandria digynia. 273 



minute sharp bristles, pointing forward, general length from 

 two to three feet, and from one to two inches broad near the 

 base, where broadest. Sheaths smooth, except at the mouths, 

 and there bearded on both sides. Panicle very large, erect, 

 with long, slender, smooth, elegantly drooping', verticelled, 

 compound and decompound ramification. Flowers in pairs, 

 as in the genus; one hermaphrodite, and sessile; the other 

 male, and pedicelled. Calyx two-valved, one-flowered, oval, 

 rather obtuse, and hairy, but without the characteristic wool- 

 ly, or hairy involucre round the base of the flowers. Corol 

 in both sorts three- valved, membranaceous, and fringed, 

 sometimes the hermaphrodite flower is awned. Nectary two, 

 fleshy, broad, truncated, fringed scales. 



Obs. In habit this beautiful species comes near my Andro- 

 pogon tnmbackianns, from the Cape of Good Hope, but is 

 more elegant in the panicle. 



SECT. IV. Panicles Jbliaceous. 



32. A. pumilus. R. 



Erect, twelve inches high; panicles composed of numer- 

 ous axillary, and terminal, conjugate spikes, on long, joint- 

 ed sheathed peduncles. Calyx of the sessile hermaphrodite, 

 flower awned, cuspidate. 



A native of Coromandel, and one of the smallest of the 

 genus. 



Culms ramous, erect, smooth. Leaves rather small, particu- 

 larly the floral ones, which are little more than large sheaths. 

 Panicle composed of numerous, axillary, and terminal, con- 

 jugate, hirsute, secund spikes, elevated on slender, jointed 

 peduncles, embraced by many delicate, chafly bractes at the 

 base, and by a sheath from the joint upwards. Flowers in 

 pairs on the joints of the hairy rachis, one sessile and herma- 

 phrodite, the other peduncled and male. Calyx two-valved, 

 that of the hermaphrodite flower cuspidate. Corol one- 

 valved,an arista occupies the place of a second in the herma- 

 phrodite flower. 



vol. i. R 



