ANDROPOGONE*: 



175 



Rottboellia exaltata, L.f 



This grass is usually annual and rarely perennial. Stems are 

 stout, erect, hispid, branching from the base, varying in height 

 from 3 to 10 feet. 



The leaf-sheaths are loose, hispid with tubercle- based hairs, or 

 glabrous, with mouth contracted. The ligule is short and ciliate. 



The leaf-blade is linear-lanceolate, setaceously-acuminate with a 

 stout midrib prominent beneath, hispid or scabrid above, smooth 

 or sometimes scaberulous and glaucous beneath, spinulosely scabrid 

 at the margin, 5 to 24 inches by V\ to I inch. 



The racemes are stout, cylindrical below and very narrow and 

 with imperfect spikelets above, joints are smooth and rounded 

 dorsally. The sessile spike/els are as long as the joint or slightly 

 shorter and has four glumes. The first glume is ovate-oblong, 

 thickly coriaceous, smooth at the back with a truncate base and a 

 transverse ridge at the base inside, many-nerved, with very narrow 

 inflexed margins and very narrow wings at the top, the apex is 



I'U. 145. —Rottboellia exaltata. 



I and 2. A portion of the spike, back and front view; 3, 4, 5 and 7. the first, second, 

 third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the sessile spikelet ; 6 and 8. palea of the 

 third and the fourth glumes of the sessile spikelet ; 9. ovary; 10, II, 12 and 14. the 

 first, second, third and the fourth glume of the pedicelled spikelet ; 13 and 15. palea of 

 'he third and the fourth glume of the pedicelled spikelet. 



obtuse or emarginate. The second glume is equal to the first glume 

 in height, chartaceous, gibbously convex, broadly ovate, acute, 9- 

 to II-nerved, and with a short wing to the keel at the apex. The 

 third glume is oblong or elliptic-oblong, rigid with a hyaline centre 

 and coriaceous at the sides, 3-nerved, paleate and with three 

 stamens ; palea is as long as the glume, coriaceous with inflexed 

 hyaline margins. Lodicules are cuneate, with toothed edge. The 

 fourth glume is a little shorter than the third, ovate from a broad 

 base, hyaline and acute, i-nerved, paleate and usually with an 

 ovary and two lodicules: palea is hyaline, as long as the glume. 



