1042 CXLVIT. GRAMINE.i:. 



1, Leersia hexandra, >Stv. Frod. Verf. Iml. Occ. (1797) p. 131. 

 Perennial ; stems rooting in the mud, with floating flexuous branches 

 several feet long, sending up erect or ascending slender leafy branches 

 2-4 ft. high, usually slender and weak, smooth, striate ; nodes hairy 

 with deflexed hairs. Leaves 3-8 by i-g in., linear, tapering to a fine 

 point, suberect, rather rigid, nearly glabrous, with scaberulous margins, 

 base narrow ; sheaths nearly smooth, glabrous, the margins eciliate ; 

 ligule short, obliquely truncate or 2-lobed, membranous. Panicle 

 2-4 in. long, pedunculate, oblong, laxly branched, narrow ; rhachis 

 filiform ; branches filiform, flexuous, angular, smooth. Spikelets nearly 

 ■^ in. long. Ploral glume nearly ^ in. long, ovate-oblong, somewhat 

 boat-shaped, acute, shortly mucronate, strongly keeled, ciliate on the 

 keel and margins, 5-nerved, tlie lateral nerves forming a thickened 

 margin; palea as long as the glume, linear-lanceolate, subacute. 

 El. B. I. V. 7, p. 94 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 5, p. 184 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. 

 Nat. V. 13 (1901) p. 435 ; Prain, Beng. PI. p. 1185 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. 

 Prod. V. 4, p. 619. Leersia ciliata, Eoxb. El. Ind. v. 2 (1832) p. 207.— 

 Elowers : Oct. 



S. M. CoDNTRY :" Londa, Gammie ex IVoodrow. — Distrib. More or less throughout 

 Tndia; Cejlon, Africa, America, Australia. 



64. ORYZA, Linn. 



Tall annual or perennial grasses. Leaves long, narrow, flat. Spike- 

 lets 1-flowered, loosely arranged on the brandies of an elongate panicle, 

 disarticulating above the 2 lowest glumes. Glumes 5 .: the 2 lower 

 iuvol. -glumes below the articulation of the spikelet minute, scale-like 

 (rarely absent); the 2 next invol.-glumes above the articulation of the 

 spikelet subulate ; floral glume solitary, dimidiate-oblong, coriaceous or 

 chartaceous, 5-9-nerved, awnless or with a short or long straight 

 terminal awn ; palea linear or lanceolate, as long as the glume, 3-5- 

 nerved, coriaceous, Avith membranous margins. Lodicules 2, entire or 

 2-lobecl. Stamens 6 ; anthers linear. Style short, free ; stigmas 

 laterally exserted from the glume. Grain nawowly oblong, compressed, 

 closely covered by or adnate to the glume and the palea. — Distrib. 

 Species 5 or 0, tropical. 



1. Oryza coarctata, Iloxh. FL Ind. v. 2 (1832) p. 200. Stem 

 4-6 ft. high, erect from a stout creeping rhizome, smooth, hard and 

 polished. Leaves 6-15 by ^-g in., coriaceous, linear, caudate-acuminate, 

 with spinulose margins ; sheaths glabrous, polished, reticulate like 

 basket-work ; ligule very narrow, fringed with short hairs. Panicles 

 4-8 in. long, spike-like; rhachis and brandies trigonous, stiff, smooth. 

 Spikelets reaching | in. long (including the awn). Glumes 5, the outer 

 (below the articulation of tlie spikelet) consisting of 2 opposite minute 

 appressed rounded or truncate thick scales, one attached lower than the 

 other ; the 2 glumes above the articulation of the spil<elet subulate, the 

 lower of the pair j\ in., the upper ^ in. long. Eloral glume solitary, 

 f in. long, lanceolate, boat-shaj)ed, rounded and with a large projecting 

 wing on the back, cuspidate with a stout hard glabrous white awn 

 about ^ in. long, 7-9-nervcd, the lateral nerve forming a thickened 

 margin to the glume. Palea (upper floral glume of some authors) -^ in. 



