1032 CXLVII. GliAMIXE.I':. 



long, crowded at the base, subsetaceous with au acute or callous point, 

 plicate, tirni, the lower often curved, usually glabrous. Spike solitary, 

 1-3 in. (rarely reaching 6 in.) long; very slender, usually curved, often 

 purplish ; rhachis minutely ciliate. Spikelels 1-fiowered, dorsally com- 

 pressed, in a single row, j^-- ^ in. long, erect glabrous. luvol. -glumes 

 siibequal, lanceolate-oblong, acute or acuminate; floral glume up to 

 jW in. long, abruptly and shortly acuminate, sometimes mucronulate, 

 hairy along the nerves ; palea ciliate on the nerves. Anthers about 

 ^-^ in. long. Grain oblong, subfusiform, -^L in. long, smooth. Fl. B. I. 

 V. 7, p. 283; Woodr. in Journ. Eomb." Kat. v. 13 (1901) p. 4^0; 

 Prain, Beng. PL p. 1226. Botthoellia setacea, Eoxb. PI. Ind. v. 1 (1832) 

 p. 357 ; Cor. PI. v. 2, t. 132.— Flowers : Aug. 



S. M, Country: Dliarwar, Woodrow. '^ 



Usually a very siDall plant growing on old walls. It rarely exceeds 3 inches hig!;, 



thcjiigh occasionally, mider favorable conditions, it grows higher. — Distkib. Tropics 



of the Old and New World. 



50. CYNODON, Pers. 



Perennial glabrous grasses ; stems creeping, rooting at the nodes and 

 emitting from them fascicles of barren shoots and flowering stems 

 Spikes 2-6, in terminal umbels. S])ikelets l-flo\vered, laterally com 

 pressed, sessile, imbricate, alternately 2-seriate and unilateral on s 

 slender keeled rhachis ; rhacluUa disarticulating above the invol. -glumes* 

 produced or not beyond the floral glume. Floret hermaphrodite 

 Invol.-glumes narrow, keeled, acute or subulato-mucrouate, the uppe 

 usually deciduous with the floral glume, the lower subjjersistent ; flora 

 glume exceeding the invol.-glumes, navicular, firmly membranous, 

 3-nerved, avvnless, the keel ciliate ; palea somewhat shorter than the 

 glume, 2-keeled. Jjodicules 2, minute, obovate-cuneate, glabrous. 

 Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous ; styles distinct, slightly shorter than the 

 plumose stigmas, drain oblong, subterete, free within the glumes. — 

 DisTRiB. Species 2, of which 1 occurs in S. Africa, the other almost 

 cosmopoliian. 



1. Cynodon dactylon, Pers. Spi. v. 1 (1805) p. 85. Stem slender, 

 prostrate, widely creeping, forming matted tufts, with slender erect 

 or ascending flowering branches 3-1 2 in. high. Leaves |—4 by -g^j-^ iu., 

 narrowly linear or lanceolate, finely acute to pungent, more or less 

 glaucous, soft, smooth, usually conspicuously distichous in the barren 

 shoots and at the base of the stems; sheaths light, glabrous or hairy, 

 sometimes bearded at the mouth ; ligule a very lino ciliate rim. Spikes 

 2-6, radia'ing from the top of a slender peduncle, 1-2 in. long, green 

 or purplish ; rhachis slender, compressed or angled, scaberulous. Spike- 

 It-ts ^V— ji,y in. long ; rhachilla produced, very slender, equalling | the 

 length of the spikclet. Invol.-glumes lanceolate, acute to subulato- 

 mucronulate, the lower -j-— fV i'>- l""g) the upper slightly longer ; floral 

 glume obliquely oblong to semiovate, about yij in. long. Anthers 

 oblong, J- iu. long. Grain -^ in. long. Fl. B. I. v. 7, p. 288 ; 

 J)alz. & Gibs. p. 297; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 5, p. 274: Lisboa, in Journ. 

 Bomb. Nat. v. 7 (1893) p. 305; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 13 

 0901) p. .140: Prain, Beng. PI. p. 1227; AValt, Diet. Econ. Prod. 



