1030 CXLYIl. GKAMlNEJi. 



se&sile or shortly pedicellate, lO-lo-flowered, smooth, white or pale 

 yellowish ; rhachilla very short, the hairs half as long as the glumes. 

 Lower invol.-glume | in. long, scarcely longer than the lowest flowering 

 glume, ovate-lanceolate, apiculate ; upper invol.-glume 5 in. long, 

 strongly 5-nerved. El. B. I. v. 7, p. 328 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 5, p. 299 ; 

 Woodr. in Jouru. Bomb. Nat. v. 18 (1901) p. 441.— Flowers : Nov. 



GrjAKAT: Porbiindar (Kathiawar), Bhiva\ Sind : ^Yoc/iS ! — Distrib. Ceylou, 

 Arabia, East Tropical Africa. 



53. DIPLACHNE, Beauv. 



Tall tufted perennial (?) grasses ; stems erect or ascending, stout or 

 slender, simple or sparingly branched. Leaves flat or convolute, narrow. 

 iSpikelets few- or many-flowered, sessile, l-seriate on the slender spike- 

 like branches of a contracted subsimple erect panicle, not articulate at 

 the base, strongly laterally compressed ; rhachilla articulate between the 

 flowering glumes, not produced beyond the uppermost neuter. Invol.- 

 glumes unequal, membranous, 1-nerved, obtuse, persistent ; fioral-glumos 

 rather longer, elliptic-oblong, 1-3-nerved, the tip 2-4-toothed, mucronate 

 or awned ; palea linear. Lodicules 2, broadly cuneate. Stamens 3 ; 

 antliers short. Styles short, distinct, with distant bases and short 

 plumose laterally exserted stigmas. Grain oblong, stipitate, concavo- 

 convex, free in the glumes. — Disteib. Species about 20, in warm 

 regions. 



1. Diplachne fusca, Beauv. Agrosf. (1812) p. 163. Stems tufted, 

 2-4 ft. high, stout, erect or geniculately ascending, simple or branched 

 (sometimes proliferously), terete, polished, with long iuternodes. Leaves 

 6-10 by Ti^^y-jV i"-' ^■'■^ ^^ convolute, strict, erect, smooth, finely 

 acuminate; sheaths smooth, the mouth truncate (not auricled); ligule 

 oblong, membranous, lacerate. Panicle 6-12 in. long, erect, narrowly 

 oblong ; rhachis smooth ; branches spike-like, the lower 1-4 in. long. 

 Spikelets erect, rather distant, ^~| in. long, linear-oblong, 4-10-flovvered ; 

 rhachilla slender ; pedicels short. Lower invol.-glume ^ in. long, 

 oblong-lance'jlate ; upper invol.-glume nearly i in. long, ovate-oblong, 

 subacute, broader than the lower ; floral glumes \ in. long (including 

 mucro), elliptic, thinly coriaceous, 3-nerved, the tip 2-toothed, mucronate 

 by the produced midrib ; palea oblong, obtuse, the keels silkily hairy. 

 Anthers -Jjj in. long. Fl. B. I. v. 7, p. 329 ; Trim. Fi. Ceyl. v. 5, p. 300 ; 

 AV^oodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 13 (1901) p. 441 ; Prain, Beng. 

 PI. p. 1225. 



KoNKAN : Matiinga near Bombay in rice-fields, Woodrow, 10! — Distuib. India 

 (upper Gangetic plain, Bengal, W. Peninsula); Cejloii, Egypt, Tropical Asia, Africa, 

 and Australia. 



54. GRACILEA, Keen. 



Small tufted grasses. Leaves short. Spikelets 2-flowered, collected 

 in turbinate fascicles which are secund, sessile and articulate on a 

 slender spike. Spikelets not articulate at the base ; rhachilla usually 

 produced beyond the upper glume, filiform, scaberulous ; callus 0. 

 (ilumes 4; invol.-glumes elongate-subulate, rigid, ciliate at the base 

 and ending in rigid scabrid awns, persistent, collateral at base aud 

 laterally attuchi d to base of spikolel ; lo\Aer \\itliout hyaline margins; 



