oe 
GRAMINEAE 75 
2. COIX Linnaeus 
Tall, coarse, erect, branched, annual or perennial grasses with long, broad 
leaves. Spikes numerous, axillary and terminal, the lower spikelets solitary, 
female, enclosed in a hardened, shining, bead-like capsule, the pedicels 
bearing the male spikelets protruding through the apex of the capsule. 
Male spikelets lanceolate, in pairs or in threes at each node of the rachis, 
1 sessile, and 1 or 2 pedicelled. Glumes 4, the first and second subequal, 
empty, the third and fourth thin, paleate, each enclosing a flower, or empty. 
Female spikelets ovoid, acuminate, of 4 glumes, the first chartaceous, the 
others thinner. Grain orbicular, enclosed in the hardened, shining capsule. 
(A Greek name used by Theophrastus for some reed-like plant.) 
Species 3 or 4, or reduced by some botanists to a single variable one, in 
the tropics of the Old World, 2 forms in the Philippines. 
1. C. LACHRYMA-JoBI L. Tigbe (Tag.); Job’s Tears. 
Stems coarse, stout, 1 to 2 m high, branched. Leaves 10 to 40 cm long, 
2.5 to 4 em wide, acuminate, base broad, cordate. Spikes 6 to 10 cm.long, 
erect, peduncled. Male spikelets about 8 mm long. Capsule enclosing the 
female flowers and the grains hard, bony, white or nearly black, shining, 
ovoid, about 8 mm long. (FI. Filip. pl. 188.) 
In waste places, occasional, fl. Oct._Feb., and probably in other months; 
widely distributed in the Philippines. Tropical Asia and Malaya, cultivated 
in tropical Africa and America. Probably a native of India, and of pre- 
historic introduction in the Philippines. 
3. DIMERIA R. Brown 
Slender, annual or perennial grasses. Leaves narrow, flat. Spikelets 
1-flowered, unilateral, sessile or pedicelled, on 1 or 2 to several, digitately 
or racemosely arranged spikes, the rachis not jointed. Glumes 4, the first 
linear, rigid, the second broader, compressed, the third smaller, hyaline, 
empty, the fourth hyaline, entire or 2-lobed,. keeled, 1-nerved, usually 
awned, containing a perfect flower. Grain linear, laterally compressed, free. 
Species about 12, Asia to Australia, 1 in the Philippines. 
1. D. ornithopoda Trin., var. tenera (Trin.) Hack. 
A very slender, annual, erect, more or less tufted grass 10 to 40 cm high. 
Leaves linear, 2 to 3 cm long. Inflorescence long-exserted, consisting of 2, 
ascending or spreading, slender spikes 5 em long or less, digitately arranged 
at the apex of the stem, the rachis slender, slightly flexuous. Spikelets 
sessile, about 2 mm long, the awn of the fourth glume very slender, often 
nearly 1 cm long. (Greek “two parted” in allusion to the two spikes.) 
In open wet lands, especially in fallow rice paddies, etc., fl. Aug.—Dec.; 
widely distributed in the Philippines. India to Australia. 
4, IMPERATA Cryrilli 
Perennial, erect, unbranched grasses from stout underground rootstocks. 
Leaves flat. Spikelets 1- or 2-flowered, in dense, spike-like, silvery-silky 
panicles, in pairs, both pedicelled, the upper flower perfect, the lower im- 
perfect or none. Glumes 4, thin, awnless, the first and second lanceolate, 
hairy, the third and fourth much smaller, thin, glabrous. Stamens 1 or 
2; anthers large. Grain small, oblong, free. (In honor of F. Imperato, 
an early Italian pharmacist.) 
Species 5, chiefly tropical, 2 in the Philippines. 
