Ckri/sopogon.] GRAMINE^. 425 



crowded, the upper ones few, with long sheaths. Panicle narrow, 2 to 3 in. 

 long, glabrous except a short tuft of hairs under the spikelets. Outer glumes 

 of the sessile spikelet about 1£ lines long, with short points, the awn of the 

 flowering glume protruding to 3 or 4 lines. Male spikelets full 2 lines long, 

 with longer points to the glumes, and no awns. — Rhaphis trivialis, Lour. Fl. 

 Coch. 553. Andropogon acicularis, Eetz ; Kunth, Enum. i. 505. A. (Rhaphis) 

 javanicus, Nees in Steud. Syn. Gram. 396. 



On roadsides, Wilford, Wright. Dispersed over India, from Ceylon and the Peninsula to 

 the Archipelago, extending to Australia and the Pacific islands, and northward to the Philip- 

 pines and China. 



28. ISCELffiMUM, Linn. 



Spikelets in pairs, one sessile, 2-flowered, the lowest flower male, the other 

 pedicellate, usually male or rudimentary, in a simple spike or in the spike-like 

 sessile branches of a simple panicle, the rhachis articulate, at least towards the 

 top. Outer glumes 2, stiff and awnless, the lowest with 2 prominent lateral 

 nerves, the second keeled. Flowering glumes and paleas smaller, thin and 

 transparent, all awnless or the glume, of the terminal flower with a twisted 

 awn. 



A tropical or subtropical Asiatic and Australian genus. 



Spikes simple, slender, unilateral, unawned. 



Outer glumes not winged, fringed with long bristles 1.7. leersioides. 



Outer glumes entire or minutely toothed, winged at the top . . . 2. I. ophiuroides. 



Spikes rather thick, divided into 2 erect branches, with twisted awns . 3.7. barbatum. 



1. I. leersioides, Munro in Proc. Amer. Acad. iv. 363. Stems tufted 

 and leafy at the base, ascending to 6 in. or 1 ft., rarely branched. Leaves 

 narrow, rather pointed. Spike solitary on a long peduncle, simple, slender, 1 

 to \\ in. long and often curved. Outer glumes of the sessile spikelets ovate 

 and loosely imbricate on one side of the rhachis, \\ to 2 lines long, slightly 

 pubescent, scarcely obtuse, not winged but elegantly bordered by long spread- 

 ing bristles. Awns none. Pedicellate spikelet reduced to a short point on a 

 somewhat dilated pedicel. 



Hongkong, Hance ; in open places on the hills, Wilford. Also on the adjacent continent, 

 but not known out of S. China, unless it prove to be a variety of the Indian I. pectinatum, 

 which has the outer glume winged as well as fringed. 



2. I. ophiuroides, Munro in Proc. Amer. Acad. iv. 363. A small 

 tufted grass like the last, but the leaves usually shorter and more obtuse. 

 Spikes 1^ to 2 in. long, rather firmer than in I. leersioides, the outer glumes 

 of the sessile spikelets more closely imbricated, broader and more obtuse, 

 bordered at the top by a scarious wing, with a few minute tooth-like cilia 

 towards the base. Pedicellate spikelet reduced to an abortive glume on a flat 

 stiff green striated pedicel, as long as the fertile spikelet. 



Hongkong, Hance ; and in some other islands of the Canton river, but not known out of 

 S. China. 



3. I. barbatum, Retz ; Kunth, Enum. i. 513. Stems ascending or erect, 

 branched, 1 to 2 ft. high, usually with tufts of short hairs at the nodes. 

 Leaves very pointed, the lower ones long. Spikes divided to the base into 

 2 erect branches 1| to 2 in. lonir, the outer glumes, pedicels, and rhachis very 



