CXLVII. GRAMINE^. 913 



small terminal imperfect ones. Floral glumes subherbaoeous to sub- 

 coriaceous, 5-many-nerved, usually awnless. Lodicules usually 3. 

 Stamens 3-6 or more. Styles 2 or 3. 



Pericarp thin, adnate to the seed. 



Paleaj all 2-keeled ; stamens 6; filaments free 69. Bambusa. 



PaleiB of upper flowers or glume-like, not keeled; 



filaments connate 70. Oxytenantiiera. 



Pericarp fleshy or crustaceous, not adnate to the seed. 



Spikelets 2-many-flovvered ; palea 2-keeled ; stamens ; 



pericarp crustaceous 71. Dendrocalamus. 



Spikelets 1-fiowered ; palea or glume-like ; pericarp 

 fleshy 72. Ochlandra. 



1. SPIIVIPEX, Linn. 



Dioecious gregarious much-branched rigid littoral bushes ; stem and 

 branches woody. Leaves narrow, rigid, involute, spreading and re- 

 curved, thickly coriaceous. Inflorescence of large terminal globose 

 bracteate heads, with radiating spike-like racemes, the male with many 

 spikelets on each spike, the female with one only. Male spikelets 

 1-2-flowered, distichous, articulate on short pedicels. Glumes 4, 

 ehartaeeous, acute, strongly nerved ; invol. -glumes empty ; lower floral 

 glume paleate, empty or 3-andi^ous ; upper floral glume paleate, 

 3-androus, the paleae of both floral glumes acuminate, as long as the 

 glumes. Anthers linear. Female spikelets narrower than the male, 

 erect, lanceolate, 1-flowered. Glumes acute or acuminate, strongly 

 nerved, the lower invol. -glume the longest ; lower floral glume empty; 

 upper floral glume thin, dorsally compressed ; palea linear-oblong, 

 acuminate. Lodicules 2, large, connate below, strongly nerved. Styles 

 long, connate below ; stigmas long, penicillate, exserted at the top of 

 the glume. Grain clavate, tipped by the long rigid style, free within 

 the hardened glume and palea. — Disteib. Species 4, one in India, 

 three in Australia. 



1. Spiuifex squarrosus, Linn. Mant. (1771) p. 300. A pale 

 grey or glaucous equarrose shrub, several feet high and broad, forming 

 an impenetrable thicket ; stem as thick as the little finger below, 

 smooth, solid. Leaves 4-6 in. long, spreading and recurved, smooth, 

 tapering from the base to the tip, concavo-convex, base not dilated, ' 

 margins scaberulous ; sheath |-1 in. long, smooth, with naked margins ; 

 ligule a ridge of stiff hairs. Male inflorescence reaching 6-8 in. in 

 diam. ; bracts shorter than the spikes, lanceolate, aristately pungent, 

 flat, ehartaeeous, the midrib very prominent beneath ; racemes (male) 

 1-3 in. long, longer than the stout angular peduncles ; rhachis angular. 

 Spikelets | in. long, smooth, straw-colored. Glumes 4; lower iuvol.- 

 glume usually shorter than the upper, ovate, acute, pungent, con- 

 spicuously 7-9-nerved ; upper invol. -glume similar but usually longer ; 

 floral glumes longer than the invol. -glumes, subequal, 5-7-nerved. 

 FEM.4.LE INFLORESCENCE reaching 10 in. in diam. ; bracts as in the male 

 but smaller ; peduncle thickened towards the base. Spikelets |-| in. 

 long, narrowly lanceolate. Glumes 4 ; lower invol.-glume oblong- 

 lanoeolate, many-nerved, scaberulous ; upper invol.-glume rather shorter, 

 7-nerved ; lower floral glume empty, the palea or imperfect ; upper 

 floral glume ovate-lanceolate, 5-nerved ; palea shorter than the glume, 



YOL. II. 3 O 



