342 triandria DiGYNiA. Eleusine. 



Culms spreading, ramous, creeping-, with their flower- 

 bearing- extremities ascending, from six to twelve inches long. 

 Branches generally opposite. Leaves short, with their margins 

 ciliate. Head or spike terminal, long-peduncled, globular, 

 composed of two or three, sessile, secund, short spikes, which 

 are again composed of two rows of alternate, from six to 

 twelve-flowered, sessile, ovate-oblong spikelets. Calyx, from 

 six to twelve-flowered, equal, acute, striated. Corol, outer 

 valve keeled, acute, three-nerved, very hairy near the base, 

 inner valve as in Poa, with its back ciliate. Seed oval, com- 

 pressed, smooth, and brown ; dropping from the corol when 

 ripe. 



Obs. Both these species are of a coarse nature. 



The Linnaean definition of the genus does not accord well 

 with the only two species I have met with in India. That 

 of Poa agrees better with their essential character ; and had 

 not Burman, in his Flora Indica, made them both belong to 

 this genus, I should certainly have considered them as species 

 of Poa, though in their general habit they by no means 

 agree with the elegant plants of that genus. When I had an 

 opportunity I forgot to examine the seeds in a sufficiently 

 exact manner. I suspect they have the aril of the following 

 genus, because they have much of its general habit. 



ELEUSINE. Gcert. Carp. i. p. 7.* 

 Calyx two-valved, containing many flowers of two equal 

 valvelets. Seed with a complete membranaceous aril. 



1. E. Coracana. G&rt. Carp.i. 8. #. 1. 



Culms erect, from two to four tvut high, compressed. Leaves 

 bifarious. Spikes digitate, incurved. Calyces from three to six- 

 flowered. Seed round. 



* I adopt Gasrtner's name on account of the aril, which envelopes 

 the seed, and the total want of the involucre of Cynosurus in all 

 the Indian species that I have yet met with. 



