ADDITIONS TO THE FLORA OF CEYLON. 169 



are also specimens in the Peradeniya Herbarium collected by Moon, 

 and labelled " Kandy, April, 1821." The granulations of the glabrous 

 glumes and the characters of the leaves seem to afford good specific 

 characters for this plant, and to mark it clearly off from all the 

 varieties of "Wild Paddy," though in other respects the form 

 about to be noticed approaches it so closely as to have been com- 

 pletely mixed up with it by Ferguson in his collection. I am 

 indebted to Prof. Oliver for comparison of this Ceylon plant with 

 "Wight's n. 2354, which I suspected to be the same. I believe no 

 description of the species has been previously published. It is Wal- 

 lich n. 8634 c, from Nepal, and there are specimens of it in Hk. f. & 

 Thorns. Herb. Ind. Or., from Sikkim. 



0. sativa L., var. collina Trim. MS. Apparently often perennial; 

 culms 2-3 ft. high, strongly compressed; leaf-blades long, gradually 

 narrowed to the base, without any obvious petiole; ligule short, 

 about "I in. long ; inflorescence erect, paniculate ; spikelets small ; 

 Brd and 4th glumes minutely and regularly tesselated and finely 

 bristly, the 3rd with a white awn varying in length from ^ to 1^ 

 the length of the glume, the 4th with the apex produced into a 

 short beak. — Not uncommon in dry hilly situations in many parts 

 of Ceylon, and no doubt a small wild form of cultivated paddy. It 

 is C. P. 2876 of Thwaites' distribution, his specimens having been 

 collected at Kurunegala ; and it occurs on the tops of many other 

 hills, as on Beligala Kande, near Kegalla, whence it is recorded by 

 Mr. R. W. Jevers, C.C.S., in the Journ. Asiatic Soc. (Ceylon 

 Branch) for 1885, vol. viii., p. 353. In the dry eastern parts of the 

 island I have met with it in many places, always in dry sandy soil 

 under the shade of trees, and usually at no great distance from a 

 stream. 



This small wild rice is a very different-looking plant from 

 the large wild form commonly found in marshes, and known to the 

 natives as " Uru-wi," which is not greatly different from the ordinary 

 cultivated paddy of the irrigated fields. It is often a very large 

 plant, is (always ?) strictly annual, with long thick cylindrical 

 culms usually rooting at the nodes, a very large erect panicle, large 

 spikelets, and a very conspicuous yellow or orange awn 2 or 3 in. 

 long. It ai^pears to be undoubtedly wild, and scarcely varies ; the 

 grain is excellent, but, from the habit which the plant possesses of 

 ripening two or three grains only at a time, the labour of collecting 

 it is very great. 



Mr. Jevers' notice, above referred to, is as follows : — " I was shown 

 a species of grass, or 'Hill-paddy,' which looks like a small kind of 

 El vi, growing among the jungle on the top of the rock, and said to be 

 peculiar to the place." " El-wi" (= Hill or Rock Paddy) is a kind of 

 cultivated rice grown here under many varieties in uplands and moun- 

 tain districts without irrigation. "Elwi " is a large annual grass, with 

 the culms slightly compressed or nearly cylindrical below, very long 

 narrow leaves tapering to the base, hairy above, and with a long 

 tapering acute ligule | in. long ; the spikelets are large, ^ in. 

 long, in a nodding panicle 10 in. in length, overtopped by the 

 highest leaf; and the awn is usually absent, save in the distal 



