150 CLXXIII. GRAMINE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) 



44. APXiUDA, Linn. 



A leafy perennial grass. Stems geniculately ascending from a creeping 

 or decumbent base, sometimes scandent, panicnlately branched. Leaves 

 petioled, flat ; sheaths of upper spathiform. Inflorescence of very many 

 solitary small simple spikes, terminating the stem and branches, each 

 enclosed in a special membranous peduncled spathe, together forming a 

 leafy panicle. Spikes of one linear joint gibbously bulbous at the base, 

 and jointed on the peduncle at the base of the spathe by a minute 

 curved pedicel; rachis (joint) smooth. Spikelets 3, a sessile 2-fl(L bisexual 

 with a pedicelled imperfect (reduced to a small gl.) at the base of the 

 rachis, and a terminal male or neuter, rarely bisexual; sessile spikelet 

 seated on the bulbous base of the rachis (callus of authors) ; gls. 4, I char- 

 taceous convolute many-nerved margins not inflexed, II compressed 5-7- 

 nerved dorsally gibbous keeled, III ovate-lanceolate hyaline male paleate, 

 IV much smaller bisexual ovate paleate entire or 2-toothed, awned or not. 

 Lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3, anthers short. Styles free. Grain 

 oblong, embryo large. 



In the above description I consider what Hackel describes as the pedicel of the 

 upper spikelet to be the rachis of the uninodal spike; and his callus of the sessile 

 spikelet to be a bulbous inflation of the base of the rachis. 



A. varia, Hack, Monogr. Androp. 196. A. aristata and mutica, 

 Auci. Apluda, Wall. Cat. n. 8760, 8761. 



Throughout INDIA and BURMA, ascending the Himalaya to 8000 ft. CEYLON, 

 up to 4COO ft. DISTRIB. E. trop. Asia, Malaya, Australia, Ins. Pacific. 



Stem 1-7 ft. or more, solid, as thick as a crow-quill below ; branches flexuous ; 

 roots wiry. Leaves 4-18 in., subbifarious, linear-lanceolate, cuspklately acuminate, 

 base narrowed usually petioled, above and margins scaberulous, glaucous beneath, 

 upper gradually shorter; sheaths glabrous, rarely hairy, upper shorter and dilated 

 into spathes with subulate tips ; ligule short, rounded. Spathes of the flg. branches 

 about 4 in. long, cymbiform, thin, many-nerved ; of the spikes smaller, very variable 

 in length, longer or shorter than their almost capillary peduncles. Spikes -$ in., 

 green or pale violet. Sessile spikelet |- in. The following is Hackel's arrangement 

 of the very unstable Indian varieties of this polymorphous plant. It is especially 

 useful as approximately classifying its intricate synonymy. 



Subsp. MUTICA, Hack. ; gl. IV very rarely awned ; I straight glabrous ; 

 II dorsally gibbous keel depressed above the gibbosity acute glabrous ; 

 panicle usually lax, ultimate flg. branchlets usually half as long as the 

 sheath. A. mutica, Linn. Sp. PI. 82; Gzsrln. Fruct. ii. t. 175; Lamk. 

 III. t. 841, f. 1; Anderss. in (Efvers, Vet. A/cad. Stockh. (1855) t. 5, f. 6. 

 A. gigantea, Spreng. Syst. i. 290. ?A. glauca, Schreb. Beschr. Grses. 

 99. A. geniculata, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 325. Andropogon glaucus, Retz. Obs. 

 v. 20. Calaminea gigantea, Beauv. Agrost. 15, t. 23, f. 1. 



Var. humilis ; clusters of spikes distant, spathe of spike - in., sessile spikelet 

 y- in., callus -^-Q in,, gl. I entire, imperfect spikelet hirsute. A. humilis, Kunth 

 Enum, PI. i. 517. A. Cumingii, Buese ex de Vriese PI. Eeinw. 105. A. inerrais, 

 Regel in Act. Hort. Petrop. vii. (180) 658. A. mucronata, Sfeud. Syn. Gram. 

 404, Calaroina humilis, Roem. $- Schult. Syst. ii. 810. 



Subep. ABISTATA, Hack. gl. IV of sessile spikelet cleft to the middle ; I 

 chartaceous ; 11 dorsally less gibbous, keel sometimes scabridly ciliate 

 often 2-mucronate ; panicle dense, ultimate flg. branchlets shorter than 

 the spathes, clusters of spikes close or confluent. A. aristata, Linn. 



