GRAMINEAE 97 
the rachis, forming a beak which bores into the ground. (In honor of 
L. M. A. du Petit-Thouars, a French cre 
A monotypic genus. 
1. T. involuta (Forst.) R. Br. (7. sarmentosa Pers.). 
A slender, widely creeping gtass, the leaves narrowly lanceolate, 2 to 5 
em long, 3 to 5 mm wide. Spikes 1 cm long or less. Fruit 0.8 to 1 em 
long, shaped like a bird’s head and beak. 
In thickets back of the beach, Parafaque, sometimes in pure sand of 
the beach, fl. Aug._Jan.; throughout the Philippines along sandy seashores. 
Ceylon to Madagascar, Malaya, Australia, and Polynesia. 
29. SPINIFEX Linnaeus 
Coarse, rigid, prostrate, widely spreading, dioecious grasses, the leaves 
rigid, involute. Male spikelets 1- or 2-flowered, subsessile, jointed on 
rigid, peduncled, many-flowered spikes which are arranged in umbels sur- 
rounded by spathaceous leafy bracts; glumes 4, the first and second 
empty, the third and fourth paleate. Female spikelets collected in large 
globose heads of radiate, spreading, very long, awn-like spikes, each 
with a single spikelet at the base, the glumes about as in the staminate 
spikelets but narrower, the fourth one pistillate. (Latin “spine.’’) 
Species 4, mostly in Australia, 1 in the Philippines. 
1. S. littoreus (Burm. f.) Merr. (S. squarrosus L.). 
A gregarious, coarse, stiff, prostrate, widely spreading grass, the stems 
often 10 to 15 m long, rooting at the nodes and sending up short, stout 
flowering branches. Leaves stiff, rigid, involute, 10 to 20 cm long, the 
sheaths often imbricating. Male inflorescences about 15 cm in diameter, 
the spikelets about 1 cm long, the female inflorescence globose, 20 to 30 em 
in diameter, including the long, slender, needle-like awns. 
Along the seashore, Paranaque, fl. Aug._Jan.; widely distributed in the 
Philippines on sandy seashores. India to China and Malaya. 
The globose female heads become detached and are rolled along the 
beach by the wind, thus dispersing the seeds. 
30. ORYZA Linnaeus 
Tall, leafy, annual grasses, the leaves flat, long. Panicles more or less 
elongated, the branches slender. Spikelets many, jointed on the panicle- 
branches, oblong, laterally compressed, their pedicels annular at the top. 
Glumes 2 or 3, the first and second much the smallest, scale- or bristle- 
like, or none, the third chartaceous, obtuse, acute, or awned, 3- or 5-nerved, 
the palea as long as the glume and similar to it, keeled. Grain free or 
adnate to the glume and palea. (From its Arabic name.) 
Species 6 or 8, tropical, 3 in the Philippines. 
Spikelets 7 to 9 mm long; cultivated...........2.22....22..2...ceeeeeeeeeeeeeen ee 1. O. sativa 
ce cre ge). EGR Se ne na Sn ne ae ee 2. O. manilensis 
*1. O. SATIVA L. Palay (Tag.); Arroz (Sp.); Rice. 
An erect, slender or stout, variable, annual grass 1.5 m high or less. 
Leaves flat, 15 to 30 cm long, up to 2 cm wide. Panicles erect or nodding, 
25 cm long or less. Spikelets green or purple, 7 to 9 mm long, awned 
or awnless. (FI. Filip. fl. 102.) 
111555——7 
