Streptogyna.] CLXXIII. GRAMINE^B. (J. D. Hooker.) 



2-3. Styles filiform ; stigmas 2-3, very long, at length spirally twisted. 

 Grain linear, terete, Iree but closely embraced by the gl. and palea. 



S. crinita, Beauv. Agrostogr. 80, t. 16, f. 8; Poir. Encycl. Suppl. 

 t. 912 ; Kunth Enum. PL i. 427, tiuppl. 349 ; DoellinMart. Fl. Bra*, ii. III. 

 171, t. 46; Steud. Syn. Gram. 339 ; Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 528; Thw. 

 Enum.Pl.Zeyl.374,; Trim. Cat. PL Ceyl. 110 ; Wight Cat. n. 2362. S. 

 guianensis, Rich, ex Roem. $ Scli. tiyst. ii. 614. Streptia crinita & secunda, 

 Herb. Rick. 



TRAVANCORE ; Courtallam, Wight, Beddome. CEYLON; Matele district, Gardner. 

 DISTRIB. Africa and America trop. 



Stem 4-6 ft., smooth. Leaves often as long as the stem, lanceolate, gradually 

 narrowed to the base and apex, membranous ; sheath long, open ; ligule short. 

 Spikes terminal, 8-16 in. long, with a spathiform basal sheath ; rachis compressed, 

 smooth, produced beyond the spikelets, with often an imperfect glume. Spikelets 

 1 in., quite smooth and glabrous; gls. subcoriaceous ; I lanceolate, finely acuminate; 

 III narrowed into the very slender awn, - in. long. Anthers very long and 

 narrow. 



113. JEXiUROPUS, Trin. (exparte). 



Low much branched rigid leafy perennial grasses. Leaves distichous, 

 usually spreading and convolute, rigid and pungent, rarely flat. Spikelets 

 6- many-fld., sessile or subsessile in oblong spiciform panicles or capitate, 

 densely crowded, laterally compressed, villous, not jointed on their pedicels ; 

 rachilla jointed at the base and between the fig. gls. internodes very short. 

 Glumes many, oblong, membranous, dorsally rounded, apiculate cuspidate 

 or mucronate, I and II shorter than the flg. gls;, I 1-3-nerved ; II 5-7- 

 nerved ; fl. gls. closely imbricate, 7-9-nerved, longer than the empty gls. ; 

 palea as long and broad as its gl.. broader upwards, truncate, keels ciliate. 

 Lodicules 2, obliquely truncate. Stamens 3, anthers small. Styles free, 

 stigmas plumose. Grain ovoid to pblong, free. Species few, Reg. Mediter., 

 Oriental and Indian. 



Farlatore (Fl. Ital. i. 462) has, under ^L littoralis, pointed out that two plants 

 have been referred to ' M. Icevis, Trin., namely, Dactylis brevifolia, Koen., and 

 D. littoralis, Willd. The former of these is an Indian species, on which alone 

 Triuius founded the genus, the latter being subsequently referred to it by Steudel 

 (Norn. Ed. II. i. 30) ; but Parlatore was not aware of D. brevifolia being a species 

 of Eleusine, and that therefore JEluropus, Trin., has no foundation. That this is so 

 is evidenced both by Trinuis's citation of Koenisfs plant by name as his Icevis, and 

 by his figure of the fruit (Agrost. Fund. t. 12), which is conclusive. It would, 

 however, appear from C. A. Meyer (Verz. Pfl. Cauc. 18 (183L) that Trinius may 

 have included both D. brevifolia and littoralis under his A. Icevis : for that author, 

 qtioting no doubt from the St. Petersburg!! Herbarium, cites Iccnis and villosus as 

 species of Trinius, giving (by error) D. littoralis as the authority for Iccuis, and Poa 

 repens, Bieb., for villosus. Under these circumstances it'appears to me that the best 

 course to adopt, is to retain JEluropus as " Trin. ex parte,' 5 for D. littoralis and 

 other plants described by later authors under that generic name. The alternatives 

 are either to coin a new name for the latter, or to adopt for these Calotheca, Spreng. 

 (Syst. i. 342 (1825), which is a mixture of several genera, including &luropi t and 

 which name is better avoided, inasmuch as there is an earlier Calotheca (Desv. 1810), 

 likewise made up of several genera of grasses. It remains to say that the synonyms 

 of Eleusine brevifolia (see p. 295), and of JEluropus littoralis and villosus are 

 almost inextricably involved ; and 1 am far from being satisfied with my attempt to 

 disentangle the first and last of them. 



