AGROSTIDE/E 



225 



Aristida setacea, Retz 



This is a tall coarse perennial grass with hard, smooth and 

 polished, stout, erect simple or branched stems, 3 to 4 feet. Roots 

 are stout and wiry. 



The leaf-sheath is glabrous, cylindrical. The ligule is a row of 

 short hairs. The nodes are glabrous. 



The leaf-blade is linear, coriaceous, convolute, glabrous, strongly 

 nerved, 6 to 12 inches long. 



The inflorescence is a contracted panicle varying from 6 to 18 

 inches with short, erect or subsecund branches. 



FlG. 173. — Aristida setacea. 



1. The spikelet : 2 and 3. the first and the second glume ; 4. t lie lower portion of the 

 third glume, anther, ovary and the lodicules ; 5. palea of the third glume. 



The spikclets vary from Y 2 to % inch excluding the awn. 

 There are three glumes. The first glume is about % inch long, 

 lanceolate-linear, narrowed into a short awn. The second glume is 

 longer than the first, I-nerved and minutely 2-toothed or notched 

 at the base of the awn. The third glume is % inch long, 3- 

 nerved, nearly smooth. The callus of the third glume is long, 

 densely silkily hairy with three awns not jointed at the base 

 with the glume ; awns about I inch or more. Lodicules are ovate- 

 lanceolate, fairly large. Grain is narrow, cylindrical. 



This grass grows in open dry situations in many parts of the 

 Presidency. 



Distribution. — All over India. 

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