Meiica.] OLXXin. GRAMINE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) 331 



WESTERN TE.MPEKATK HIMALAYA ; from Kashmir to Kumaon, alt. 6-10,000 ft. 



Stem 3-5 ft., very slender, flaccid, smooth. Leaves 8-10 by -\ in., more or 

 less scabrid ; sheaths scabrid, hirsute on the upper margins ; ligule short, truncate, 

 2-auricled. Panicle very variable, rarely reduced to a subsimple raceme; rachis 

 filiform ; branches 2-5 in., at length horizontal, often 2 in. apart, smooth or scabrid. 

 Spikelets often irregularly disposed, shortly pedicelled, crowded on short branchlets, 

 or distantly scattered, 5-^ in. long, pale green; rachilla slender, scaberulous; gl. I 

 and II ovate-lanceolate, I 1-nerved ; II 3-nerved ; flg. gls. distant, lowest about 

 twice as long as II, narrowly lanceolate, strongly 7-9-nerved, tip quite entire ; palea 

 shorter than its gl., keels scaberulous. Lodicules very minute. Anthers variable in 

 length. Grain subcylindric or fusiform. Closely allied to the Affghan M. secunda, 

 Regel (M. gracilis, AitcTi. cf* Hemsl.) a native of Affghan. and Turkestan. 



Var. micraniha ; spikelets i in., leaf -sheaths nearly smooth, ligule hardly 

 auricled. Kishtwar, alt, 6000 ft., Clarice. 



110. LOPHATHERUBX, Brongn. 



Tall slender leafy perennial grasses. Leaves petioled, lanceolate, acu- 

 minate, nerves tessellate. Spikelets 1-fld., narrowly lanceolate, terete, 

 solitary, secnnd and jointed on the long strict alternate branches of a lax 

 panicle ; rachilla not jointed at the base, produced beyond the flg. gl. and 

 bearing several closely sheathing awned. empty gls. Glumes dorsally 

 rounded, I and II empty, oblong, obtuse, margins membranous, 5-nerved, 

 deciduous with the flg. gl. ; III much longer, coriaceous, ovate-oblong, 7-9- 

 nerved, mucronate or shortly awned ; keels of palea narrowly winged, 

 smooth. Lodicules Q Stamens fa Styles connate at the base,, stigmas 

 long. Grain oblong, free. Species 1 or 2, trop. Asia, //tflf) I 



Xi. gracile. Brongn. in Duperr. Voy. Bot. 50, t. 8; fffunth Enum. PL 

 i. 391 ; Steud. Syn. Gram. 300 ; Benth. PL Hongk. 433 ; Thwaites Enum. 

 PI. Zeyl. 374; Trim. Cat. Ceyl. PL 109; Miq. FL Ind. Bat. iii. 400. 

 L. elatum, ZolL & Mor. Syst. Verz. Zoll. 102. L. japonicum, multiflpj;um 

 and dubium, Steud. Syn. Gram. 300. L^Lehmanni, l\lees esc ISteucLL c. 

 Acroelytrum japonicum, Sleud. in Flora, xxix. (1846) 21. AJlelotheca 

 tlrvillej,, tfteud. ^yn. Gram. 117. Centothecse affine, Wall. Cat,, n. 8900. 

 ~&nff.Ic. PL As'iat. t. 152, f. 2. 



TROPICAL HIMALAYA, from Sikkim eastwards ; the KHASIA and NAGA HILLS, 

 BURMA, CEYLON (up to 4000 ft.), and the MALAYA PENINSULA. DISTRIB. China, 

 Japan, Malaya, N. Guinea. 



Stem 2-5 ft., ascending from a branched woody rootstock. Leaves 4-10 by 

 2-1^ in., narrowed into a slender petiole ^ in. long; sheaths smooth; ligule 

 minute. Panicle of few distant strict stiff smooth branches, 6-18 in. long. Spike- 

 lets -^ in., including the short awns of the closely imbricate upper empty glumes, 

 which form t a pencil of short erect or spreading bristles projecting from the apex 

 of the tightly rolled flg.vgls. It is remarkable that this plant has not been observed 

 in the Deccan Peninsula. 



DOUBTFUL SPECIES. 



L. DUBIUM, Steud. Syn. Gram. 300. Herb. Wight, n. 1090. The description is 

 of leaves only, and quite unrecognizable. 



111. CENTOTHECA, Desv. 



Tall perennial grasses. Leaves broadly lanceolate, tessellately nerved. 

 Spikelets 1-2-fld., secund on the long branches of a lax subsimple panicle, 



