139. GBAMINEM. 



long without the short abrupt 2 -fid beak which is divided nearly to 

 the base into 2 lanceolate prickly teeth. Nut closely included elliptic 

 3-gonous stipitate. Stigmas 3. 



Dumraon (Shahabad), Ramyad Lai ! Fl.. Fr. Feb.-April. It is frequent in the 

 Upper Gangetic Plain and extends to Sikkim. 



6. C. phacota, Sjyreng. 



Rather a handsome sedge about 2 ft. high with csespitose 3-quetrous 

 stems from a short woody rhizome and with brown sheaths at their base. 

 Leaves glaucous, often as long as stem or exceeding it and attaining 

 3 ft., •25--3" wide. Inflorescence consisting of several long drooping 

 female spikes toAvards the top of the stems 2-3" long in the axils of 

 foliaceous bracts and a terminal erect brownish male spike. Fem. 

 usually 4-5 on slender peduncles •12--25" long, linear-cylindric, -25" 

 diam., glumes oblong with an excurrent green linear 3-nerved centre, 

 hispid above and white often brown-dotted sides, length including the 

 excurrent cusp -12". Utricle much medianly compressed exceeding 

 the glume in length and breadth, ovoid, or ell. -rhomboid, •12--14"long, 

 margined, faces hoary (brown in the herbarium) with close white 

 papillae, scarcely beaked. Stigmas 2. 



In marshy places under shade, 2000 ft. Siugbhum! Fl., Fr. March-June (also 

 collected by me in the Central Provinces, both localities being an extension of its 

 distribution over that given in the F.B.I.). 



The papillfe or glands on the utricle turn red and come off on boiling. 



FAM. 139. GRAMINE^. 



Annual or perennial herbs (grasses) or suffruticose or with very 

 large woody culms (bamboos). Stems or culms terete, hollow or 

 solid between the transverse septa (knots or nodes), often swollen above 

 the septum externally but inside the sheaths (culm nodes)* and sheath 

 often with an annular swelling at the base which may become shrunk 

 or discoloured Avith age (sheath nodes).* Leaves distichous ; sheath 

 open or its margins overlapping, more rarely closed to the top ; a 

 membranous scarious hard or hairy appendage (ligule) usually at 

 junction within of sheath and blade, sometimes ligule obsolete. 

 Flowers usually 2-sexual but often some 1 -sexual and in a few genera 

 dioecious, always much reduced, solitary in the axils of close imbri- 

 cating sessile green or scarious or coriaceous bracts (glumes). f Glumes 

 distichous and alternate on a minute axis "rhachilla" ; each separate 

 system of glumes with the rhachilla is called a "spikelet." Spikelets 

 spicate or racemed or variously panicled. LoAvest 2 glumes % (rarely 



* The Avord " node " is usually sufficiently intelligible when referring to hairi- 

 ness or other character and is then used without qualification. 



t The glumes are distingviished by some authors into gluvie», i.e. the lower 

 empty ones ?i,i\(\. florets, valoes or /toiveriiig glumes. The outer in vol ucral glumes how- 

 ever often more resemble the first fioAveriug than the flowering do one another 

 and the mori^hology is the same. These same authors call the palea a valvule. 



t The glumes are numbered consecutively from below upwards thus, i, ii, iii, 

 etc., but if there are reasons to believe that any are suppressed the numbering is. 

 in accordance Avith their supposed position, e.g. if from comparison with allied 

 species it is believed that gl. i is suppressed the lowest glume is numbered ii and so 

 on. 



937 



