AGROSTIDKA-; 



241 



Sporobolus scabrifolius, Bhide, 



The plant is a very pretty one, especially when in flower. It is 

 a loosely tufted annual varying in height from 5 to 30 inches. 

 Stems are slender, terete, 6 to 30 inches long, bent at the base, 

 then geniculately ascending and finally becoming erect, glabrous, 

 pale green or purplish. 



The leaf-sheath is shorter than the internode, slightly compress- 

 ed, obscurely keeled, glabrous and striate, margin is thinly 

 ciliate on one side, especially towards the mouth which is bearded. 

 The leaf-sheath embracing the peduncle is longer than the lower 

 sheaths. The ligule is a fringe of close-set hairs on an inconspi- 

 cuous ridge. The nodes are glabrous. 



The leaf-blade is glaucous green, I to 5 inches long, J A to % inch 

 broad, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate, fiat, rounded or 

 subcordate, and amplexicaul at base, scaberulous throughout, 

 with tubercle-based deciduous hairs on both the surfaces, and 

 bearded at the base above the ligule ; the margin is thickened, 

 serrulate, ciliate with bulbous-based deciduous hairs. 



The infloreseenec is an effuse panicle, 2% to 7 inches long and I to 

 4% inches broad, pyramidal or elliptic on a slender peduncle I to 7 



Fig. 186. — Sporobolus scabrifolius. 



I. Portion of a branch ; 2. spikelet ; 3, 4 and 5. the first, second and thiid glumes : 

 6. palea ; 7. anthers and ovary ; S. grain. 



inches long ; rachis is striolate, cylindric, glabrous and partly green 

 and partly purplish. Branches are capillary, Y 2 to 2% inches long, 

 those in the middle of the panicle are often the longest pale green 

 at first but turning purple later, whorled regularly or irregularly, 

 with often a solitary or twin branches intervening, spreading, 

 horizontal, reflexed, rarely one or two erect, dividing into still finer 

 branchlets below, ending in a few solitary spikelets above, swollen 

 at the base near the place of insertion and naked to a short length, 

 scabrid. The lowest whorl consists of five to ten branches and in 

 others they vary from three to eight ; the branchlets are spreading 

 and drooping bearing from two to seven spikelets. There are 

 glandular streaks at the base of the branches above the point of 

 insertion in the naked portion and also on the pedicels of the 

 spikelets. 



3i 



