Eragrostis] xxviii. gramine^, 249 



Culms li ft. long, internodes (except the uppermost) increasing 

 upwards from J- to If in. long, sheaths from | to If in. ; ligule 

 1 line long; leaf -blades 1| to 3.! in. long by 11 to 3 Hnes broad. 

 Panicle 6 to 7 in. long, by about 2 in. in diameter, branches 

 reaching 1| in. in length becoming shorter near the base and 

 apex ; pedicels of the lateral spikelets 2 to 4 lines long, of the 

 perennial often exceeding }, in. Spikelets 2 to 3 lines long by 

 1 line or a little more in breadth ; l)arren gls. ^ and 'i line 

 respectively ; fertile gl. -i line long by a good f broad ; anther 

 ^ line long ; grain i line in diameter. 



A very distinct species chai-acterised by its rufescent linear- 

 lanceolate leaves, and delicate long-stalked somewhat Briza-like 

 purplish spikelets, with broad blunt flowering glumes and very 

 small grain. It resembles somewhat the more effuse smaller- 

 spikeleted forms of E. chalcantha Trin., but differs in its 

 tremulous more delicate spikelets with Ijroader glumes and 

 .smaller grain. 



PuNfio AxDoNcio. — A beautiful grass, annual, caespitose, culms 

 ascending at the base, spikelets purplish. By sandy road-sides from 

 Quicuxe towards Cacuaco ; June 1858. No. 7279. 



30. E. vacillans Rendle sp. nov. 



Stem forming a slender creeping rhizome at the base ; culms 

 erect fi-om an ascending base, branched, internodes 4 to 6, glabrous, 

 except the uppermost comparatively shoi't and not or only slightly 

 exceeding the loose compressed purplish sheath, sheaths and leaf- 

 blades scabridulously pilose, especially when young ; ligule a short 

 dense row of hairs ; blades flat, short, narrowly linear-lanceolate, 

 acute ; panicle ellipsoidal, diffuse, branches glabrous like the 

 rhachis, slender, scattered (lowest sometimes whorled) flexuously 

 ascendo-patent, bearing spikelets or more rarely short branches 

 from the base upwards ; pedicels long, filiform, glandular ; 

 .spikelets small, 8- to 11 -flowered, ovate, dull brownish -green, 

 tremulous; barren glumes sparsely pilose, the lower small, 

 enerved, lanceolate to ovate from a truncate base, blunt, 

 caducous, reaching to the middle of the lowest fertile glume, the 

 upper broadly ovate, 1 -nerved, reaching to within ^ of the tip of 

 the second fertile glume ; fertile glumes inflated, suborbicular, 

 blunt, pilose outside the submarginal lateral nerves ; pale subequal, 

 elliptical when flat, keels very faintly scabridulous in the uppei* 

 half, transparent green. 



Culms 1,\ ft. or less in length, internodes on the longest culm 

 (below the flowering) \ to I'} in. long, not exceeding 1 line in 

 thickness, terete or longitudinally grooved above a branching 

 node ; blade f to 2^ in. long by two lines or less in width. The 

 largest panicle 6 in. long by 3 in. in diameter, with branches 

 reaching 2 in. long, curving outwardly at about half a right- 

 angle ; pedicels equal to or longer than, rarely shorter than the 

 spikelets, of the terminal spikelets often twice as long ; spikelets 

 barely reaching 2 lines long by li broad, lower barren gl. barely 



