CXLVII. GEAMIKE^.. 951 



acute lobes ; awn |-^ in. long, ciliate, the lower half brown, twisted, the 

 upper half white ; palea minute or 0. Fl. B. 1. v. 7, p. 112 ; Woodr. 

 in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 13 (19U1) p. 436. — Flowers : Oct. 



KoNKAN: Law I, S/ocksl Deccan : Lanoli, Woodrow, 173 1 — Distrib. India 

 (W. Himalaya, W. Peninsula, Pegu). 



20. OPHIURUS, Gajrtu. 



Annual or perennial tall grasses; stems solid, branching upwards, 

 leafy. Leaves linear-lanceolate. Spikes soliiary or fasciculate, terete,_ 

 fragile; joints excaA'ate, with concave tops. Spikelets 2-flowered, 

 solitary and sessile in the joints, with uo trace of an upper spikelet and 

 no awn. Glumes 4 ; lower invol. -glume thickly coriaceous, convex, 

 obtuse ; upper invol. -glume membranous, concave, keeled ; lower floral 

 glume elli[)tic, obtuse, hyaline, faintly 2-nerved, the margins infolded, 

 paleate, male; upper floral ghime as long as the loA^er, oblong, obtuse, 

 2-sexual ; palea narrow. Lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3 ; anthers 

 linear. Styles and stigmas small, not exserted. Grain oblong, free. — 

 Distrib. Tropical Asia and Africa ,; species 1 or 2. 



1. Ophiurus corymbosus, Gtertn.f. Friwt. v. 3 (1805) p. 4, t. 181, 

 fig. 3a {OiJiiuros). Perennial; stems erect from a tuberous base, 

 3-6 ft. high, reed-like, as thick as a goose-quill below, solid, branching 

 upwards, leafy throughout ; nodes glabrous. Leaves 6-24 by §-1 in., 

 flat (convolute in vernation), linear-lanceolate from a rounded base, 

 finely acuminate, hairy above with bulbous-based liairs, glabrous beneath, 

 the margins spinulose ; sbeaths short, terete, the upper leafless; ligule 

 very short. Spikes 2-5 by ^^ ^'^•i corymbosely fasciculate, erect, often 

 in verjr- dense fascicles, frequently tinged with purple ; peduncles short; 

 joints as long and as broad as the spikelets, the tip obliquely truncate. 

 Spikelets -^ in. long. Glumes 4 ; lower invol.-glume thickly coriaceous 

 or cartilaginous, oblong, obtuse, convex, more or less seriately foveohito 

 on the back, glabrous, at length recurved ; upper invol.-glume 

 membranous, as long as the lower, faintly 3-nerved ; lower floral glume 

 equalling the lower invol.-glume, elliptic, obtuse, hyaline, paleate, male; 

 upper floral glume as long as the lower, elliptic-obloiig-,'obtuse. Anthers 

 yVin. long. Fl. B. I. v. 7, p. 160 ; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 300 ; Woodr. in 

 Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 13 (1901) p. 437; Prain, Beng. PI. p. 1191. 

 liotthoellia corymbosa, Linn. f. Suppl. (1781) p. 114 ; Grah. Cat. p. 233. — 

 Flowers : Dec. Veen. Hutia. 



Deccan: pastures, Bed zcll^ (Hbsoti; Poona, Cooke I, Woodrow; Jeiir (Ahmednagai- 

 districts), Woodrow. S. M. Country: Belgaum, Ri/c/tie, 807! Gujarat: BalzeU cf- 

 Gihson, Woodrow. — Distrib, India (Himalaya and Kliasia Hills, N. Bengal, W. Pen- 

 insula) ; Tonkin, Australia. 



21. ROTTBOELLIA, Linn. f. 



Annual or perennial grasses of various habit ; stems leafy. Leaves 

 narrow, flat. Eacemes solitary or subpaniculate ; rhachis articulate ; 

 internodes terete or compressed, each bearing a pair of usually dissimilar 

 awnless spikelets, the lower 1-2-flowered, usually 2-sexual, the upper 

 pedicellate, male or neuter, sometimes rudimentary, the pedicel free 

 or adnata to the side of the internode. Glumes 4 ; lower invol.-glume 



