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104 A FLORA OF MANILA 
the flowering glumes. Glumes few or many, keeled, the first and second 
shorter than the flowering glumes, subequal or unequal, persistent. Flower- 
ing glumes 3-nerved. Grain free, pericarp hyaline, loose. (Name of a - 
Greek town where Ceres, goddess of harvests, was worshipped.) 
Species about 7, tropical and subtemperate regions, one in the Philip- 
pines. . 
1. E. INDICA (L.) Gaertn. 
A rather stout, tufted, annual, erect, glabrous grass 10 em to 1 m high. 
Leaves 10 to 30 cm long, sometimes involute when dry, 3 to 7 mm wide, 
distichous, rather flaccid, the sheaths flattened. Spikes 3 to 6, all in a 
terminal whorl, or one or two lower down, 2.5 to 10 cm long, 3 to 5 mm 
thick. Spikelets very numerous, crowded, 3- to 5-flowered, 3 to 4 mm 
long, the first glume 1-nerved, small, the second 3-nerved, the third and 
succeeding ones ovate, acute. 
Very common in waste places, along roadsides, etc., fl. all the year; 
throughout the Philippines, probably of prehistoric introduction. Tropics 
of the Old World, naturalized in America. 
41. DACTYLOCTENIUM Willdenow 
More or less tufted annual grasses. Leaves flat. Spikelets numerous, 
crowded, imbricated, spreading, several-flowered, alternate in several rows 
in dense, 1-sided spikes which are digitately arranged at the apices of the 
stems. Glumes several, keeled, acute, or shortly awned, the two lower ones 
empty, slightly unequal, the upper glumes broader, the lower ones enclosing 
a 2-keeled palea and a flower, the upper ones empty. (Greek “finger” and 
“little comb.”) 
Species few, tropical, one in the Philippines. 
1. D. 2#GyptTium (L.) Willd. 
A rather coarse grass 15 to 60 cm high, the basal parts decumbent, 
usually more or less creeping and rooting, the flowering stems erect or 
ascending. Leaves 5 to 18 cm long 2 to 6 mm wide, the sheaths loose, 
imbricate. Spikes 3 or 4, rarely only 2, digitate, stout, often purplish, 1 
to 5 cm long, 5 to 7 mm thick, the rachis excurrent at the tip, mucronate. 
Spikelets numerous, densely crowded, spreading, about 3 mm long, 3- or 
4-fiowered, the first glume ovate, acute, the second obliquely awned, the 
flowering glumes also cuspidate-awned, the cusps recurved. 
Common in waste places, roadsides etc., fi. all the year; widely dis- 
tributed in the Philippines, probably of prehistoric introduction. A native 
of the Old World where it is widely distributed, now extensively natural- 
ized in the New World. 
42. LEPTOCHLOA Beauvois 
Annual, erect, usually tufted grasses with flat leaves, the slender, spike- 
like panicle-branches racemosely arranged on the elongated rachis. Spike- 
lets small, compressed, several-flowered, sessile or shortly pedicelled, 
unilateral. Glumes 3 to many, thin, the first and second unequal, oblong 
or lanceolate, 1-nerved, empty, the others ovate, acute or obtuse, 3-nerved. 
Grain subglobose to obovoid, closely invested by the glume and palea. 
(Greek “slender” and “grass.’’) 
Species about 15, tropical and subtropical, 2 in the Philippines. 
