162 CLXXIII. GRAMINEJ:. (J. D. Hooker.) [Elionurus. 



UPPER GANGETIC PLAIN, Eoyle Agra and Etfcawah, Duthie ; Delhi, Clarke. 

 DI-TRIB. Arabia, Abyssinia, Cape Verd Islds. 



Stems 4-12 in., slender, leafy, geniculate. Leaves 4-10 in., narrow, flat or 

 convolute, glabrous or sparsely hairy, base fimbriute ; lower sheaths terete, upper 

 spathiform ; ligule very short. Spikes 1-2 in., erect, clustered towards the top of 

 the stem, stout, green or purple, each enclosed in a long narrow flattened acute 

 sheath ; joints bearded below the tip. Sessile spikrlets % in., erect ; callus densely 

 bearded ; gl. I deeply 2-tid at the top, lobes linear ciliate divergent, sides with a row 

 of large tubercles each carrying a pen il of long hairs; II membranous, linear- 

 lanceolate, acuminate, 1-nerved ; III shorter, oblong, acute, nerveless, glabrous, 

 epaleate ; IV much shorter, oblong, obtuse, 1-nerved or nerveless. Pedicelled 

 spikel'ts % in., narrowed almost from the base into a long subulate ciliate blade ; II 

 cymbiform, glabrous, narrowed into a scabrid awn ; III and IV 0, pedicel with one 

 margin shortly ciliate. 



2. E. hirsutus, Munro ex Benin, in Journ. Linn. Soc. xix. (1881) 68; 

 perennial, spikes peduncled naked, gl I of sessile spikelet narrowed into a 

 long narrow flat 2-fid beak margins villous, gl. Ill and IV paleate. Boiss. 

 FL Orient, v. 466 ; Duthie Grass. N. W. Ind. 17, h'odd. Grass. N. Ind. 28, 

 t. 17. Rottboellia hirsuta, Vahl Symb. i. 11; Del FL &gypt. t. 14, f. 1; 

 Kunth Enum PI. i. 467 ; Hack. Monogr. Androp. 311. Ischaemum hirsutum, 

 Nres eoj Steud. Syn. Gram. 361. 1. mastucaturn, Trin. in Mem. Acad. 

 Petersb. Ser. VI. ii. (1833), 298. Coelorachis hirsnta, Brongn. in Duperr. 

 Voy. Bot. 68. Lasiurus hi- sutus, Bom. Diagn. PL Or. II. iv. (1859) 146. 

 Saccharum hirsutum, Forsk. FL ^Egypt. Arab. 16. 



NORTHERN PANJAB ; Jelalpoor on the Jhelum, Jacquemont ; Peshawur, alt. 

 3500 ft., Stewart. RAJPOOTANA; Multan, Edgeworth; Sind, Stocks. DISTRIB. 

 Westward to N. Africa. 



Rootstock woody, branched. Stems 1-2| ft., ascending from a branching base, 

 stout, smooth, rigid. Leaves narrow, coriaceous, sheaths white. Peduncle 6-10 in., 

 slender. Spike solitary, stout, 2-4 in., silvery silky all over. Spikelets imbricating, 

 appressed to the rachis ; gl. I of lateral spikelet divergent, narrowly lanceolate, 

 coriaceous, 7 !t-nerved; II ^ shorter, chartaceous, 5-nerved, aristately acuminate, 

 awn scabrid ; III hy.iliue, oblong, obtuse, faintly nerved, neuter, palea lanceolate, 

 nerves scaberulous ; IV oblong, obtuse, faintly 5-nerved, palea as of gl. Ill but 

 smaller. Pedicdled spikelet smaller, erect ; gls. shorter, flowerless. Regarded by 

 Hackell as an anomalous Rottboellia,, and nearer to IscJuemum than to Elionurus, 

 but neither in habit nor characters does it approach the Eottboellieee ; and is naturally, 

 I think, an Elionuru3, from other species of which it only differs in the paleate gls. 

 Ill and IV. 



51. CLEISTACHNE, Benin. 



Tall perennial grasses. Leaves long, narrow, flat. Spikelets solitary, 

 1-fld., in an oblong contracted much branched panicle, linear-oblong, terete, 

 hirsute, jointed on the branchlets of the panicle. Glumes 4, I and II 

 narrow, rigidly coriaceous, obtuse, completely enveloping III and IV; III 

 much smaller, narrow, hyaline, 2-nerved, margins inflexed ciliate; IV 

 very short, hyaline, with a terminal stout twisted awn ; palea minute, 

 hyaline, ciliate: Lodicules cuneate, ciliate. Anthers 3, large, linear. 

 Styles free, stigmas short. Grain obovate-oblong, compressed, free. 

 Species 3, the following and 2 African. 



The affinities of this genus and of Germainia are with Anthistiria. 



C. Stocksii, Hook. f. ligule oblong, spikelets dark brown, margins 

 of gl. IV entire, palea ovate obtuse. 



