139. GRAMINEM. [87. Polttoca. 



very narrowly inflexed along the margins, coriaceous, filling the 

 excavated internode ; ii membranous, adhering to the mner face of 

 the cavity, subequal ; iii hyaline 2 -nerved ; iv usually nerveless. 

 Pedicelled spkt. with more elongate acuminate glumes, ii mucronate 

 or aristate. 



Weak, rarely erect. Spkts. 'l-'lo'. Gl. ii of ped. spkt. acuminate, 



7-9-nerved .1. compressa. 



Stout, erect. Spkts. "l?-'!" Gl. ii of ped. spkt. awned 1-3-nerved . 2. protenm. 



1. H. compressa, R. Br. Syn. Rottboellia compressa, L. /. 



Caespitose, dwarf and usually creeping below with many spreading 

 branches, sometimes subscandent among bushes. Leaves linear 

 acute, margins and sometimes upper surface scaberulous, mouth of 

 sheath hairy. Spikes 1 •5-5-5" usually appearing fascicled in the leaf 

 axils (one with a branch in a spathaceous bract or leaf, the branch 

 bearing a spike and another branch and so on ; before the elongation 

 of the branches the whole forms a congested fascicle as in so many 

 other grasses) or spathaceous sheaths ; rhachis coherent, ending in an 

 acute tip. Sessile spkts. -I-'IS" (--2", F.B.I.). Gl. i coriaceous 

 obtuse or acute, 7-9-nerved ; ped. spkt. i narrowly lanceolate, tip 

 scabrid ; ii acuminate or aristulate 7-9-nerved. 



Wet places. Singbhum ! Purneah (Kissenganj) ! Santal Parg., Kurz\ Fl. 

 July-Oct. 



2. H. protensa, Steud. Syn. Rottboellia protensa, Hack. 



Erect from a decumbent base, 3-6 ft. high with linear leaves 3-12" 

 long by •17--25" wide, narrowed each end, glabrous, margins smooth. 

 Spikes often very long and numerous from the close leaf sheaths, 

 4-8" long. Rhachis coherent (not breaking up), joints shorter than 

 the sessile spkt. Spkts. •17--2" long, aAvn or cusp -Oi-'OG". Sessile 

 spkt. gl. i many-nerved, narrowed from the middle upwards, subacute. 

 Ped. spkt. gl. i 7-nerved ; ii long-awned, 1-3-nerved. 



Santal Parg., Kurz ! FI. March-May. 



Both this and the preceding are, 1 believe, much more common than the collected 

 specimens make appear. 



87. POLYTOCA, Br. 



Large erect grasses with bearded nodes and long flat leaves. Flower- 

 ing branches fascicled sheathed by spathaceous bracts, proliferously 

 panicled with often long naked internodes up to the next fascicle. 

 Spikelets geminate, sessile and pedicelled on the articulate rhachis of 

 solitary or panicled spikes, usually lower only on the spike, female or 

 2 -sexual, upper spikelets male or sometimes upper spikes entirely 

 male. Male spkts. lanceolate 2-fld. glumes 4, i many-nerved, 2-keeled ; 

 ii 5-7 -nerved ; iii and iv hyaline, paleate, 3-androus with very long 

 anthers and cuneate lodicules. Fem. spikelets with the pedicelled 

 imperfect, its pedicel confluent with the rhachis ; sessile spkt. with 

 the lowest glume (or bract?) oblong, coriaceous with the margins 

 inflexed and embracing the rhachis, at length crustaceous or more 

 coriaceous ; ii thin acuminate ; iii hyaline, epaleate ; iv hyaline, paleate,. 



1061 



