HORDED 



Oropetium Thomaeum, Trin, 



This is a very small densely tufted annual grass, never exceed- 

 ing 3 inches in height and with compressed slender, tough stems. 



The lea/sheath is compressed, membranous, short and open. 

 The ligule is an erect lacerate membrane. 



The leaf-blade is filiform, shorter or longer than the stem, erect 

 or curved, coriaceous with the margins sparsely ciliate with long 

 strict hairs, % to I inch long. 



The spikes are solitary or fascicled curved on very short branches 

 I to I Y 2 inches long ; rachis is green, undulating, tetragonous, 

 with a broad central nerve on the flat faces. 



Fig. 228. — Oropetium Thomaeum. 



I. Spike; 2. spikelet ; 3 and 4. empty glumes; 5. flowering glume; 

 6 and 7. flowering glume and its palea ; 8. the ovary, stamens and lodicules. 



The spikelets are very small, one-flowered, half immersed in the 

 alternating distichous cavities of the rachis. There are three 

 glumes in the spikelet. The first glume is very minute, hyaline 

 and sunk in the hollow of the rachis. The second glume is the 

 longest, linear-lanceolate, rigid, tip obtuse or emarginate, slightly 

 convex with a broad thickened centre and recurved in fruit. The 

 third glume is shorter than the second, hyaline, broader obtuse, 

 semi-circular in profile, excessively membranous, with the callus 

 bearded and paleate ; palea is smaller than the glume. There are 

 three stamens. Grain is oblong, terete, free. 



This small grass is very common all over the Presidency in the 

 plains in moist places. 



Distribution. — Plains of India, Burma and Ceylon. 



