NOTES ON THE FLORA OF CEYLON. 271 



Hab. Streams about Peradeniya, Central Prov., flowering in 

 January. The stems root at the lower nodes. A much more 

 diffuse growing plant than the ordinary form of the species here. 



The empty glumes are certainly not persistent below the 

 articulations in this plant, but fall with the spikelet or immediately 

 after, leaving the bare much-dilated apex of the pedicel very con- 

 apicuous, as in so many species of PanicerE. 



I. meneritana Poir. is merely /. aiistralis type. The name was 

 (Encycl. Method. Suppl. iii. 185) bestowed on the Ceylon plant 

 mentioned by Brown when he published the genus Isachne as being 

 a member of it (Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. j). 196). The specimen is in 

 Hermann's herbarium, and is alluded to by Linnaeus in ' Flora 

 Zeylanica' under No. 43. Mr. Ridley, of the British Museum, has 

 kindly examined the original, and informs me that it is precisely 

 C. P. 880 (i.e., /. aiistralis). The Sinhalese name " Meneri-tana" 

 (tana = grass) is, however, erroneously applied to this by Hermann ; 

 it rightly belongs to two species of Fanicum — P. iiiiliare and P. 

 psilopodinm — which are commonly cultivated as dry grains in the 

 low country. 



Panicum reticulatum Thw. ms. — A large, erect, perennial 

 grass, 3-6 ft. or more in height ; leaf-sheaths strongly hispid with 

 bristly hairs ; nodes silky ; blade linear, rather long, somewhat 

 hispid beneath near the base; ligule short, erect, jagged-ciliate ; 

 panicle very large and compound, the branches long, erect or 

 ascending, the lower in tufts not verticillate, all flexuous and 

 rough ; spikelets rather scattered and distant, on slender pedicels, 

 under ^ in. long, acuminate, glabrous ; outer glume subacute, not 

 half the length of the spikelet, broad, 5-nerved, somewhat gibbous; 

 2nd and 3rd glumes subequal, very concave, apiculate, with a hard 

 tip, 7-9-nerved, all three similar in texture, membranous, olive- or 

 purplish-green, the parallel nerves connected mostly in the upper 

 part by 2-4 short transverse ones forming a loose reticulation, the 

 3rd glume with a rather large empty membranous palea in its axil ; 

 flowering-glume not much shorter, smooth and shining ; grain 

 plano-convex, hard, smooth and polished, bright ochre-yellow. 



Hab. Borders of paddy-fields, Hewessee, Pasdun Korle, Aug. 

 1865 (C. P. 3890 in Herb. Perad.) ; Culloden Estate, near Kalutara, 

 1881, W. Fenjusun. A large handsome species, attaining a great 

 size, and with very hispid sheaths when grown in a garden at 

 Colombo. The arrangement of the spikelets and branching of the 

 panicle is somewhat similar to those of the universally cultivated 

 "Guinea Grass," F. maxivmm L., to which indeed the present 

 species is allied. 



I am informed by Mr. Hemsley that this species is also in 

 Herb. Kew from Malacca (Grifiith) and from the Philippines 

 (Cuming 652 & 1667). The latter specimens are named by Ben- 

 tham and Munro "P. cccsium Hk. & Arn. ex Nees"; but Mr. 

 Hemsley points out that they are quite distinct fi'om the Macao 

 plant so named by Hk. & Arn. in Bot. Beechey's Voy. p. 235, 

 which is clearly a species of the Fchinochloa group. Steudel has 

 copied their description (Syn. p. 47) under "P. cccsium Nees (in pt.)," 



