050 CXLVll. GKAMIXEjE. 



inombranous, densely ciliate. liaceiiies ^-1 in. long, resembling a 

 string of minute beads, solitary or seemingly fascicled in the axils of 

 the leaves, but individually from shortened axillary branches. Sessile 

 ^pikelets -j^-jTr in. long, subglobose ; callus tumid, glabrous. Glumes 4; 

 lower invol. -glume irregularly foveolate on the back ; upper invol.-glume 

 closing the cavity of the lower floral glume, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, 

 1-nerved; lower floral glume hyaline, shorter than the upper invol.- 

 glume ; upper floral glume about equalling the lower, broadly ovate, 

 obtuse ; palea similar but a little shorter. Pedicellate spiJcelets equal in 

 length to the sessile or longer, of 2 equal green glumes about Jjj in. 

 long ; lower invol.-glume broadly ovate or suborbicular, obtuse or 

 subacute, 5-7-nerved, one margin narrowly folded, the other with a 

 liyaluie wing; upper invol.-glume boat-shaped, laterally compressed, the 

 keel with a dorsal hyaline ciliolate wing. El. B. I. v. 7, p. 159 ; Grab. 

 Cat. p. 2;U : Dalz. & Gibs. p. 300 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 5, p. 209 ; 

 Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 13 (1901) p. 437; Prain, Beng. Pi. 

 p. 1191 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 5, p. 1(54.— Elowers : Oct. 



Common throughout the Presidency on barren land. Df.ccan : Poona, Cooke'.; 

 Kliandala, Wuodrow. S. M. Country: J)harwar, Woodrow. — Distkib. Throughout 

 tlu' hotter parts of India ; Ceylon, most tropical countries. 



23. APLUDA, Linn. 



A tall slender perennial leafy grass ; stems erect or aubscandent, 

 branching. Leaves narrow, flat, more or less petiolate. Inflorescence 

 paniculate, leafy, of small spikes each in a spathiform bract. Spikes 

 deformed, base rounded, often utricular, bearing in front a sessile 

 2-sexual spikelet, prolonged above the base into 2 Hat linear truncate 

 parallel arms, one terminnted by a solitary minute glume, the other by 

 the upper spikelet. Glumes of both spikelets 4, the in vol. -glumes 

 empty, the floral glumes d.-licately membranous. Lower spikelets : lower 

 invol.-glume longest, anticous, linear-oblong, coriaceous, rigid ; upper 

 invol.-glume tiiinner, tumid, beaked, dorsally gibbous, 7-nerved ; lower 

 Horal glume oblong, acute, 3-nerved, triandroiis or neuter, with a linear 

 2-nerved ])alea ; upper floral glume short, quadrate, deeply 2-fid, awned 

 in the sinus, female or 2-sexual, with a minute ovate palea. Styles 

 short, free; stigmas short, penicillate. Upper spiikelcts dorsally com- 

 pressed; lower invol.-glume oblong, acute, many-nerved, herbaceous, 

 the margins narrowly incurved ; upper invol.-glume cliartaceous, ovate- 

 lanceolate, acuminate, 3-nerved ; lower floral glume oblong, 1-nerved, 

 triandrous : upper floral glume oblong, 1-uerved, female or imperfectly 

 2-sexual ; paleas of both floral glumes as in the lower spik(dets. 

 Lodicules of nil flowers 2, cuneate. Antliers linear. (Jrain oblong, 

 subcompressed. — DiSTiiiu. India, China, Pacilic Islands; species i. 



1. Apluda varia, Hack. Monog. Andropor/. in DC. Monog. Phan. 

 v. (J (li5!S9) p. 190, Stems densely tufted, geniculately ascending, 

 1-6 ft. high, erect or the branches rambling among bushes, stout or 

 slender, sometimes as thick as a goose-quill below, smooth and polished; 

 internodes very long, solid. Leaves 4-18 by yV-| ii^-i narrowed from 

 the middle to a liiiform tip and usually below it into a long or short 



