CXLVn. GUATNriKE.T. 1007 



decompound. Spikelets conspicuously silky from the long hairs on the 

 callus, loosely 3-10-flowered, awnless ; rhachilla disarticulating above 

 the lower and between the following floral flumes, slender, penicillate 

 with long hairs, not produced beyond the flowering glumes. Glumes 

 glabrous; invol. -glumes unequal, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 3-nerved, 

 membranous, persistent ; floral glumes heteromorphous, the lowest 

 linear-lanceolate, much exceeding the invol.-glumes, the following very 

 thin, more or less caudate-acuminate, hyaline, 3-nerved ; callus Jong, 

 slender, densely clothed with very lojig silky hairs. Paleae linear- 

 oblong, about I as long as their glumes, 2-keeled. Lodicules 2 (some- 

 times 3 in the lower floret). Stamens 3 (sometimes 2 in the lower 

 floret). Styles 2, distinct, rather short ; stigmas laterally exserted, 

 densely plumose. Grain oblong, semiterete. — Distiub. Species 2 

 (perhaps reducible to 1), almost cosmopolitan. 



1. Phragmites karka, Trin. ex Steud. Nom. ed. 2, part 2 (1841) 

 p. 324. Stems reaching 10 ft. high, smootli, simple or branched, covered 

 with the leaf-sheaths. Leaves close, bifarious, linear, acuminate, reaching 

 1| in. broad, coriaceous, smooth, base contracted, margins smooth ; 

 sheaths loose, glabrous, the mouth auricled ; bgule a ciliate line. 

 Panicle 1-2 ft. long, erect, oblong ; branches widely spreading, filiform. 

 Spikelets when fully expanded about ^ in. broad across the glumes ; 

 pedicels capillary, smooth ; callus densely clothed with long silky hairs. 

 Glumes glabrous ; lower invol. -glume g in. long, oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute, 3-nerved; upper invol.-glume rather less than \ in. long, oblong- 

 lanceolate, acute, 3-iierved ; lower floral glume less than ^ in. long ; 

 upper floral glume rather longer than the lower; palea ^ in. long, 

 linear-oblong. Anthers yL in. long. Fl. B. I. v. 7, p. 303 ; Trim. Y\. 

 Ceyl. V. 5, p. 287 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 13 (1901) p. 440 ; 

 Prain, Beng. PJ. p. 1218. Phragmites Eoxbun/hii, Steud. Nom. ed. 2, 

 part 2 (1841) p. 324 ; TVatt, Diet. Econ. Prod.'v. 6, part 1, p. 216. 



Not common in the Bombay Presidency. Deccan : Dhond, Lishoa ex Woodrozv. 

 Sind: Sfoclcs. 1211! — Distrib. More oi- less throughout India; Tropical Asia, 

 Afghanistan, Japan, Afrii^a, Australia. 



Woodrovv in his list (Journ. Bomb. Nat.) gives P. communis as grown in gardens 

 under the name of Gardeners Garter, but the Gardener's Garter which is comruonly 

 grown is Pkalaris arundinacea var. variegata. 



41. ARISTIDA, Linn. 



Annual or pei^ennial tufted grasses. Leaves flat or convolute. 

 Spikelets panicled, 1-flowered, not articulate on their pedicels, laterally 

 compressed ; rhachilla not produced beyond the flowering glume. 

 Glumes 3; invol. -glumes very narrow, long, 1 -nerved, keeled, persistent, 

 with or without a terminal awn ; floral glume very narrow, cylindric, 

 coriaceous, 3-nerved, tipped by 3 very long capillary awns (the 2 lateral 

 awns occasionally short or obsolete) ; callus long, articulate at the 

 base ; palea minute, convolute round the ovary and grain. Lodicules 2, 

 long, narrow, hyaline. Stamens 3 ; anthers long, narrow. Styles free, 

 short ; stigmas penicillate, laterally exserted. Grain long, narrow, 

 c}'lindric, free in the convolute closely enveloping glume. — Distrib. 

 Species about 100, in warm countries. 



