14. Sicchaetjm.] 97. GR AMINES. [16. Sorghum. 



Stems silky below the panicle. Mouth, of sheath woolly, ligule mem- 

 branous. Branches of panicle 3-4)'' more or less whorled on the 

 silky rachis and articulate to it. Glumes usually 3 only, outer sub-equal 

 hyaline hardened below, 3rd shorter, pale ciliate. 



Used for thatching and brooms, and the panicle for decorating the 

 hair at the Kol dances. The long callus hairs waft the seed to immense 

 distances. 



JSrianthns fastigiatus, Nees. A grass 2-8 ft. high is recorded by 

 Prain from Chota Na^pur. 



16. Sorghum, Pers. 



Tall grasses with broad fiaj; leaves and spikelets in large 

 terminal leafless panicles with snb-verticellate branches 

 which are naked below, spikes pedancled on the 

 branches or terminating them with few (rarely 7-8 prs.) 

 large more or less dorsally compressed. spikelets. Tips of the 

 branches and joints of the spikes not bearded, the latter 

 truncate. Pedicels filiform. Gl. I of sessile spikelets coria- 

 ceous with margin narrowly indexed above, involute below ; 

 II awnless ; III hyaline 2-nerved ; IV entire or 2- fid and 

 awned. 



Perennial. Panicle lax, rachis of spike 

 fragile. Spikelets reddish . . 1. halapense. 



Annual. Panicle dense, rachis of spike 

 tenacious. Cultivated . . .2. vulgare. 



Perennial. Panicie lax. Sessile spikelets 

 black shining .3. fulvum, 



1. S. halapense, Pers. Syn. Andropogan halapensis. 

 Brot. 



A grass 3-6 ft. high with creeping rootstock, glabrous 

 except above the ligale of the leaves. L. 6-10" by £". 

 Panicle reddish 8-10" with 1-3-nctely wnorled spreading 

 branches 2-3" long. Spikes with 3-4 prs. of spikelets. 

 Pedicel half as long as the sessile spikelet. 



Along rivers, not very common. Fls, Nov.-Dec. 



lie ve 



Us of 



572 



Margin of leaf scabrid. Ligule very short or a row of short hairs, 

 sheath hairy above the ligule. Axils of panicle-branohes with a thioken- 



