Victorian Plants. 495 



CHLORIS. 



2088. Spikelets on the rayed spikes narrow and pointed. 



Seldom tall ; leaves broadish, flat, greyish-green, their stalks 

 often compressed ; spikes from few to numerous, soon very 

 spreading, often of a darkish somewhat violet hue, occa- 

 sionally by elongation of the axis of the inflorescence 

 separated into more than one whorl ; spikelets rather 

 small, unilateral-biseriate, hardly crowded ; lowest bracts 

 finely pointed ; fruit-supporting bract rather conspicuously 

 awned, so also the always narrow bract on the accessory 

 stalklet ; fruit loose within its bracts. C. acicularis. 



Spikelets on the rayed spikes broadish and truncate- 

 blunt. 



Seldom tall, often somewhat prostrate in its lower portion ; 

 leaves rather broadish, flat, their stalks generally com- 

 pressed ; spikes from few to several, rather long, soon very 

 spreading ; spikelets very small, unilateral-biseriate ; 

 lowest bract extremely short and narrow, the next fine- 

 pointed ; fruit-supporting bract roundish-blunt, slightly 

 ciliolated, its awn straight, rather conspicuous, but very 

 thin ; sterile flower consisting only of a truncate bract ; 

 fruit loose within its bracts. C. tniucata. 



CVNODON. 



2089. Lowest bracts shorter than the fruit-supporting bract. 



Prostrate and partly ascending, forming dense patches, 

 rooting from the lower nodes ; leaves short, narrow, nearly 

 flat, acute, almost in two rows ; spikes very narrow, 

 usually from two to five, occasionally six or seven, often 

 of a darkish somewhat violet hue ; spikelets extremely 

 small, unilateral-biseriate ; lowest bract narrow ; fruit- 

 supporting bract slightly ciliolated, rather acute, laterally 

 much compressed ; rhacheole extended into a very short 

 glabrous flowerless stalklet ; fruit loose within its bracts. 

 "Doorva-Grass." C. Dactyloii. 



AIRA. 



2090. Panicle much expanded. 



Tall, ample-tufty ; leaves long, rather rigid, rough above, 

 flat or somewhat involute along the margin ; panicle lax, 

 elongated, its branches much whorled, less expanded 

 before and after flowering time ; spikelets small, com- 

 pressed, about as broad as long, yellowish- or purplish- 

 tinged or sometimes pale ; fruit-supporting bract hardly 

 extending beyond the outer, denticulated at the summit ; 

 awn emanating from near the middle of its bract and 

 barely reaching beyond its summit, straight ; rhacheolar 

 bractless stalklet generally present ; fruit slightly fur- 

 rowed on the outer side. A. caespitosa. 



