Isachne.'\ gramine^. 415 



Hongkong, Hance^ Wright. Widely spread over India, from Ceylon and the Peninsula to 

 the Archipelago, and northward to Amoy. 



3. I. xnyosotis^ Nees in Kew Journ. Bot. ii. 98. Stems slender, de- 

 cumbent, often branched, from a few inches to 1\ ft. long. Leaves ovate- 

 lanceolate, \ to near 1 in. long, with hairy sheaths and ciliate edges, and rough 

 on the surface. Panicle ovate, very spreading, few-flowered, about 1^ in. 

 long. Spikelets pedicellate, veiy obtuse, about 1 line long. Outer glumes 

 strongly nerved and shortly hirsute. Flowering glumes rather longer, gla- 

 brous or nearly so, the upper one female, the lower usually hermaphrodite. — 

 Panicum myosotis, Steud. Syn. Gram. 96. 



In damp situations, about Victoria, WUford ; also Wright. And in the Philippine Islands. 



8. SPINIFEX, Linn. 



Spikelets dioecious, sessile, awnless. Barren ones in spikes, each one with 

 2 male flowers, and 2 outer empty glumes. Fertile spikelets solitary, with 

 2 outer empty glumes, the third empty or with a male flower, the terminal 

 one with a hermaphrodite flower. Spikes in the male plants, and single flow- 

 ers in the fertile ones, collected in dense globular clusters intermixed with 

 long stiff often prickly bracts. 



A genus of very few species, confined to the seacoasts of tropical Asia and Australia. 



1. S. squarrosus^ Linn.; KimtJi, Emim. i. 175. A glabrous glaucous 

 hard perennial, creeping and much branched. Leaves clustered, naiTow, and 

 very rigid, often pungent, 4 to 6 in. long, the broad short sheaths often im- 

 bricate. Male spikes 2 or 3 in. long, the bracts mostly shorter, the rhachis 

 often pungent. Spikelets alternate and distant, each 4 or 5 lines long, the 

 outer empty glumes unequal and both shorter than the flowering ones. Fer- 

 tile spikelets almost concealed by the long rigid bracts, the glumes rather 

 longer than in the males, and the outer ones usually the longest. 



On the sands of the seabeach, Hance. Frequent in the maritime sands of tropical Asia. 



9. THOUAREA, Pers. 



Spikelets in short one-sided androgynous spikes, in the axil of a sheathing 

 bract. Upper spikelets with 2 male flowers, lower ones with a terminal her- 

 maphrodite and lower male flower, and all with only one outer empty glume. 



The genus is apparently limited to a single species. 



1. T. sarmentosa, Pers.; Kiintli. Eniim. i. 174. A glabrous or pu- 

 bescent perennial, creeping to a great extent vdih. short leafy flowering branches. 

 Leaves short and flat, with broad sheaths often almost covering the stems. 

 Spikes ^ to f in. long ; the sheathing bract about as long, and as the seed 

 ripens turning down over it like a hood. Spikelets about 2 Lines long, the 

 outer empty glume rather shorter than the flowering ones. 



On the sands of the seabeach, Hance. In similar situations in Ceylon, the Archipelago, 

 North Australia, and the Pacific islands. 



10. ARUNDINELLA, Kaddi. 



Spikelets 1-flowered or with a second male flower below it in a loose ter- 

 minal panicle. Glumes 4 ; the 2 lowest empty, pointed but not awned ; the 



