74 CLXXIII. GRAMINEJ]. (J. D. Hooker.) [Arundinella. 



Stems 1-5 ft., from the thickness of a sparrow's to a goose quill, simple or branched, 

 nodes glabrous or pubescent. Leaves 6-12 by -f in., usually ciliate at the narrow 

 base; ligule of soft hairs. Panicle 4-18 in.; branches 1-10 in., few or many, 

 fascicled or subverticillate, densely or laxly imbricating, usually slender and undivided. 

 Spikelets distant or crowded,' green or purplish ; jrl. I sometimes very sparingly 

 setose j III male or neuter, rarely imperfectly bisexual ; IV always bearded at the 

 base, column of awn more or less twisted. An abundant grass in many parts 

 of India, but so variable that it is difficult to formulate a character for it that 

 will not include other species. Dr, Stapf has aided me in the examination of 

 a mass of Indian specimens, including many hundreds collected by Clarke over the 

 length and breadth of India ; and especially in the more important matter of 

 identifying A. nepalensis with the American A. Irasiliensis, and various others here 

 brought together as synonyms. The largest form is Wallich's 86t36 A, with a stout 

 creeping woody rhizome, sheathed surculi as thick as a goose-quill, a stout stem 5 

 ft. high, broad often hirsute leaves, and a large panicle 6-12 in. long of spikelets 

 in. long; it is a tropical and subtropical plant extending in the Himalaya from 

 Kumaon eastward, and is common in the Khasia Hills. Wallich's 8666 B (from the 

 Calcutta Bot. Gardens ?) is a tall much more slender plant, with matted roots, very 

 narrow leaves with tubercle-based hairs, and a slender thin panicle. His 8667 A. B. 

 from Burma, is a tall plant with soft hairy leaves \-% in. broad, and an effuse sub- 

 pyramidal panicle with fascicled capillary branches and smaller spikelets about in. 

 long. It is common throughout the lower Himalaya and Khasia Hills. Another 

 variety, with a straggling branching rootstock, proliferously fascicled branches 

 sheathed at the base, short or long glabrous or hairy linear-lanceolate leaves, and 

 small oblong panicles with few slender branches and few spikelets, occurs at elevations 

 of 4-6000 ft. Lastly, there is a common Himalayan slender form from the Panjab 

 eastwards, six inches to a foot high, with tufted roots, very narrow leaves, a small 

 oblong panicle, and small spikelets. A. Ritchiei, Munro, is a tall stout Concan form, 

 2 ft. high, with a shortly creeping rootstock, narrow obscurely hairy convolute 

 leaves, a very narrow panicle, and pale small spikelets. 



14. A. fuscata, Nees ex Suese in Miq. PL JungTi. 359 ; -perennial, stout, 

 rather short, leaves short flat hirsute, panicle oblong dense-fld. usually pur- 

 plish, rachis stout pubescent or villous, branches crowded erect, spikelets 

 |- in. secund crowded sessile or shortly pedicelled glabrous or sparsely 

 setose, gl. I = | II broadly ovate acuminate 3-5-nerved, II ovate-lanceolate 

 acuminate 5-nerved, 111 obtuse or truncate 5-nerved, IY oblong-lanceo- 

 late emarginate scabrid, awn short. Steud. Syn. Gram. 114; Wight Cat. 

 n. 1667 ; A. purpurea, Hochst. ex Steud. 7. c. 115 ; VLisboa in Journ. Bomb. 

 Nat. Hist. Soc. v. (1891) 345. Acratherum fuscatum, Nees ex Steud. I. c. 



The CONCAN (Lisboa). NILGHIEI HILLS, Heyne; Ootacaniund, alt. 6000ft., 

 Wight, Lawson, King. PEGHJ, at Rangoon, Kurz. 



Stem 1-2 ft., stiff, glabrous or pubescent below the panicle. Leaves 1-8 by 

 - in., lanceolate, tapering from the base to the tip, coriaceous, strongly nerved ; 

 sheath hirsute ; ligule very short, ciliate. Panicle 2-5 in., erect; rachis and sub- 

 simple branches stiff, angular, scaberulous. Spikelets stouter and glume much 

 broader than in any form of brasiliensis. Heyne's specimens are more slender than 

 Lawson' s. I have seen no specimens from the Concan. The Rangoon plant has a 

 very pale panicle. 



15. A. capillaria, Hook. f. ; perennial, very slender, leaves narrow 

 glabrous or hairy, panicle oblong branches alternate slender flex uo us 

 naked below, spikelets in. distant solitary glabrous shorter than their 

 pedicels, gl. I = II ovate-lanceolate acuminate 3-5-nerved, II lanceolate 

 acuminate 5-nerved, III not exceeding I obtuse 5-nerved, IV lanceolate 

 acute scabrid, awn about twice as longlis the spikelet/ A mutica, Nees ex 

 Steud. Syn. Gram. 116; ? Lisboa in Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc. v. (1891) 



