28. PoLTPOGON.] ISO. GRAMINE^. 



28. POLYPOGON, Desf. 



Annual or perennial with flat leaves. Spikelets minute, articulate 

 on but not falling from their pedicels, laterally compressed, keeled,^ 

 densely crowded on the short branches of a spiciform or lobed panicle, 

 Gl. 3 ; i and ii equal concave keeled, 2-fid notched or entire, with a 

 slender awn below the tip or from the sinus ; iii articulate, much 

 smaller, hyaline, sessile, truncate, toothed, awned or not ; palea small 

 2-nerved. Lodicules falcate. Stamens 1-3, anthers small. Ovary 

 glabrous, styles free. Grain obovoid, free within the glume and palea» 



Panicle oblong or cylindi-ic, close, not lobed. Awns of i and ii 

 as long to many times as long as gkime. iii shortly awned . 1. moiispelien^h. 



Panicle lobed. Awns of i and ii less than twice as long as the 



glumes ; iii shortlj^ awned or not 2. littoral'n. 



1. P. monspeliensis, Desf. 



A closely tufted small grass 2-10" high only in our area (up to 2 ft. 

 elsewhere). Leaves 1-4" by '\--\b" (3-6" by •12--25" outside our 

 area). Panicle cylindrical or oblong -5-1-5" long and -3--5" diam., 

 sometimes obscurely lobulate from the projecting lateral branches. 

 Spikelets -06" long, minutely pubescent, easily detachable from their 

 pedicels ; gl. i and ii narrowl}^ oblong obtuse or notched at the tip 

 with awn from or from below the minute sinus, mostly 2-3 times as 

 long as the glumes ; iii oblong 2-fid easily detachable with its palea 

 and grain, -04" long with a minute deciduous awn. Palea and grain 

 nearly as long. 



Manbhum. Caff!^:). ! Hazaribagh (Parasnath), C/aj-A-e ! Fl. April. Annual. 



2. P. littoralis, Smn. 



Hooker states that "except by the uniformly shorter awns of the 

 spikelets and usually broader lobed panicle, I find it very different to 

 distinguish the annual form of this species from the common one of 

 P. mo)iS2)eliensis. In India P. littoralis does not descend to the plains." 

 The seed is apparentlj^ however sometimes carried down bj^ the rivers 

 and a plant collected by Kurz in the Calcutta Herbarium appears 

 correctly named as this. 



Santal Parg., banks of Ganges near Saheb^anj. Kurz ! Fl. May. 



29. ARISTIDA, L. 



Annual or perennial usually slender grasses with slender usually 

 convolute leaves. Spikelets panicled small, or long and slender with 

 the rhachilla articulate above the two lowest glumes and often elongate. 

 Glumes 3 ; i and ii empty, very narrow, keeled, persistent or tardily 

 deciduous ; iii narrow, convolute, acuminate, 2-sexual, tip produced 

 into a long 3-partite (ver^' rarely simple) awn ; palea very narrow, 

 embraced by the glume, sometimes minute or 0. Lodicules 2. 

 Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Grain narrow, free within the convolute 

 glume. 



976 



