I48 SOUTH INDIAN GRASSES 



1 9. Saccharum, L. 



These are tall perennial grasses. Inflorescence is a much 

 branched open panicle, branches spreading or erect, capillary 

 and fragile. Spikelets are small, I-flowered, binate, one sessile 

 and the other pedicelled, the sessile spikelet is bisexual and the 

 pedicelled is female and rarely bisexual; sessile spikelets are 

 deciduous with the contiguous joint of the rachis and the pedicel. 

 There are four glumes. The first glume is chartaceous, equal in 

 length to the second, oblong or lanceolate. The second glume is 

 concave. The third glume is hyaline, empty. The fourth glume 

 is very small or absent. Lodicules are present. There are three 

 stamens. Stigmas are laterally exserted. Grain is oblong or 

 subglobose. 



