CXLYIT. GE.AMINE.5;. 1011 



42. HELEOCHLOA, Host. 



Eigid annual or perennial erect or prostrate grasses. Leaves flat or 

 convolute. Spikelets l-fio\vered, densely imbricate, in cylindric spike- 

 like panicles laterally compressed ; rhachilla not produced beyond the 

 floral glume. Glumes 3, scarious, the invol. -glumes subequal or the 

 lower shorter, keeled, 1-nerved, persistent ; floral glume equalling the 

 upper invol.-glume or longer, ovate or oblong, loosely 1-nerved, en- 

 wrapping the grain, membranous; palea oblong, obtuse or 2-fid, 2-nerved. 

 Lodicules 2. Stamens 2 or 3. Styles elongate. Grain ovoid or 

 ellipsoid, loose in the glume and palea. — Disteib. Species few, Oriental. 



Anuual ; stems prostrate ; panicles less than 1 in. long ; fila- 

 ments of anthers not thickened at the base ; a herb of dry 

 ground 1, H. schcenoides. 



Perennial ; stems erect or ascending ; panicles reaching 3J in. 

 long ; filaments of anthers thickened at the base ; a herb 

 of salt-water creeks 2. H. dura. 



1. Heleochloa schcenoides, Host, Gram. v. 1 (1801) p. 23, t. 30. 

 Annual ; stems prostrate, spreading in a circle round the root, 1-6 in. 

 long, glabrous, smooth, more or less striate, rigid ; nodes glabrous. 

 Leaves 1-2 in. long, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate ; sheaths more or 

 less inflated, ribbed, hairy at the mouth and with membranous (some- 

 times ciliate) margins ; ligule a dense ring of long slender hairs. 

 Inflorescence a spike-like ovoid-oblong, compressed panicle |-| in, 

 long, sessile on the greatly dilated sheath of the uppermost leaf. 

 Spikelets densely imbricate, § in. long. Glumes 3 ; lower invol.-glume 

 jL in. long, linear-lanceolate, folded, glabrous except for the ciliate 

 keel, scarious, 1-nerved ; upper invol.-glume a little longer than the 

 lower, ovate-lanceolate, acute, scarious, with ciliate keel, 1-nerved ; 

 floral glume nearly ^ in. long, broadly ovate, acute, membranous, 

 1-nerved, the keel nearly glabrous ; palea oblong, obtuse. Stamens 

 usually 3 ; filaments very long, not thickened at the base ; anthers 

 small. Grain -Jq- in. long, oblong-ellipsoid, compressed. !F1. B. I. v. 7, 

 p. 235 ; Duthie, Fodd. (^rass. N. Ind. p. 48 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. 

 Nat. V. 13 (1901) p. 439.— Flowers : Dec. 



SiND : Bhubak, Cooke !, Woodrow.- — Distrib. India (Panjab, W. Himalaya, Kashmir, 

 Bandelkand, Sind) ; westward to the Atlantic. 



2. Heleochloa dura, Bom. Fl. Orient, v. 5 (1881) p. 477. 

 Perennial, pale, clothed all over with minute velvety pubescence ; stems 

 stout, ascending, 6-10 in, long, densely fastigiate from a woody inclined 

 base which is clothed with leaf-sheaths, about yL in. in diam., hard, 

 few-leaved; nodes glabrous. Leaves 3-6 in. long, involute, terete, 

 rigid, pungent ; sheaths short, coriaceous, glabrous ; ligule a narrow 

 line of hairs. Inflorescence a spike-like panicle reaching 3| by ^ in., 

 solitary at the top of the stem. Spikelets densely imbricate, -^ in. 

 long. Glumes 3, all 1-nerved and with ciliate keels ; lower invol.- 

 glume j^-g in. long, liuear-oblanceolate, acute, apiculate ; upper invol.- 

 glume -j^ in. long, linear-oblanceolate, apiculate ; floral glume -^-^ in. 

 long, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, mucronate ; palea J^ in. long, 2-fid, with 

 obtuse ciliate lobes, 2-nerved. Stamens usually 2, less commonly 3; 

 filaments very long, thickened at the base ; anthers short. Fl. B. I, 



3u2 



