BOMBAY GRASSES. - 389 



Culm erect or geniculate below, glabrous, 1-^feet or more. Sheath 

 loose, shorter than the internodes, striated. Ligula short, irregu- 

 larly jagged. Leaves 7 — 8 lines, broad in the middle, flat with many 

 prominent parallel nerves, joined by transverse veins, glabrous. 

 Panicle terminal, 8 — 10 ins. long, branched ; branches long, rather 

 distant, at first erect, then patent or divergent. Spikelets 2 lin. 

 long, loosely inserted, shortly pedicellate, two-flowered. Both flowers 

 fertile, one (lower flower) sessile, and the other shortly pedicelled. 

 First glume ovate, acuminate, 3-nerved, with a prominent keel very 

 shortly prolonged at the upper end ', margins smooth and almost 

 hyaline; second glume similar to, but nearly twice as large as, 

 the first. Flowering glume of the first or sessile flower similar, 

 but nearly 1 \ times as large as the second glume. Palea distinctly 

 two-ribbed, lanceolate. Flowering glume of the second (pedicellate) 

 flower 5-nerved, obtuse, keel runs at the upper end into a short 

 point j margins marked with stiff reflexed bristles, rising from 

 bulbous bases. Caryopsis fusiform, brown. 



The specimens examined by me were received from North Kanara 

 where " the grass grows in shady ever-green forests." All were 

 two-flowered as described above. Mr. Bentham describes a variety 

 called C. bifiora from Rockingham Bay, Delachy, the spikelets of 

 which are small, with only two flowering glumes like the Indian 

 species. 



y^LUROPUS, Trill., Fund. Agrost. 



^. lagopodioides, Trin. Fund.; ^. Icevis, Trin., Fundam; Dactylis 

 littoralis, Linn., Sp. PI. ; Roxb., Fl. Ind., I.,^342 ; Dalz. and Gibs., 

 Bomb. Fl, 298 ; Poa brevifolia, Roxb., Fl. hid., I., 342. 



Vern. Luni, Mother Dhodar. 



Culms creeping, then ascending; the erect part 6 — 12 ins. high or 

 higher, branched; branches single, short. Ligula small, pilose. 

 Leaves short, lanceolate, from a broad base, rigid, convolute and 

 pungent at the apex. Spike terminal, ovoid or sab-rotund, long, 

 peduncled, white-flowered, dense. Spikelets 4 — 8 flowered. Outer 

 glume 3-nerved ; second glume nearly equal, 3-nerved, keeled, acute. 

 Flowering glume ciliate at the back. Caryopsis compressed, smooth, 

 bright. Common on salt ground, near the sea. "It is the first grass 



