124 SOUTH INDIAN GRASSES 



i i . Leersia, Sw. 



These are tall perennial marsh grasses. The inflorescence is 

 usually a more or less contracted panicle with very slender 

 branches. The spikelets are compressed and consist of only one 

 glume bearing a perfect flower. The solitary flowering glume is 

 chartaceous, awnless, 3- to 5-nerved, the lateral nerves forming 

 the thickened margin of the glume. The palea is narrow, linear- 

 lanceolate, as long as the glume, 3-nerved, rigid, dorsally ciliate, 

 and with hyaline margins. Lodicules are two. Stamens are 

 usually six in number. Styles are short, with plumose stigmas and 

 laterally exserted. Grain is ovoid or oblong, -compressed, free 

 within the glume and its palea. 



