02 



SOUTH INDIAN GRASSES 



Panicum distachyum, L. 



This grass is an annual. Stems are slender, rarely stout, creep- 

 ing and rooting at the nodes, pale green or purplish, with erect or 

 ascending slender branches, varying in length from 10 to 15 inches, 

 glabrous or pubescent, channelled near the nodes. 



The leaf-sheath is glabrous or glabrescent and sometimes hirsute ; 

 margin is ciliate. The ligule is a fringe of short hairs. Nodes are 

 glabrous or pubescent. 



The leaf-Made is lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, base cordate 

 and subamplexicaul, glabrous or rarely sparsely hairy on both 

 sides ; margins are wavy here and there, finely serrate with 

 tubercle-based hairs towards the base, the midrib is slender, not 

 prominent and veins not distinct. There is considerable variation 

 in leaves especially in the length. In the ordinary form it varies 

 from Y2 to 3 inches and even up to 6 or 7 inches sometimes in length 

 and the breadth from Y% to X A inch. In one form which is separated 

 as a variety (var. brevifolium, Wight and Arnott,) the leaves are 

 always short and broad, ovate-lanceolate never exceeding I inch 

 in length. 



The inflorescence consists of two or three, very rarely four erect 

 or spreading distant spikes on a somewhat slender very hairy 

 peduncle. Spikes are from l A. to 2 inches ; rachis is slender, 



'• 2 



KlG. 98. — Panicum distachyum. 



I and 2. Front and hack view of a portion of a spike ; 3, 4, 5, and 6. the first, 

 second, third and the fourth glume, respectively ; 5a and 6a. palea of the third and the 

 fourth glume, respectively ; 7. anthers and ovary. 



flexuous, flattened, scaberulous, with a few long hairs scattered 

 singly along the margins or without these hairs. 



The spikelets are glabrous, ovate-oblong, acute, % inch, I- or 2- 

 seriate, subsessile, pale green, occasionally purplish on one side. 



There are four glumes. The first glume is membranous, broadly 

 ovate, obtuse with margins overlapping at the base, hardly half 

 the length of the third glume, usually 5-nerved but occasionally 

 7-nerved. The attachment of the first glume is not close to that of 



