134 Graminece. [Panicum. 



1. subbifarious, 3-5 by \-\ in. narrowly linear, acuminate, thinly 

 coriaceous, glabrous or with the margins obscurely scaberulous, 

 base hardly contracted, veins faint, sheath smooth, glabrous, 

 margins eclliate, ligule a ridge of long hairs; panicle 6-10 in.,, 

 erect or inclined, rhachis very slender, angular, smooth or 

 scaberulous ; spikes many, shorter than the internodes, |-i in. 

 long, distant, secund, sessile, erect or falcately recurved,, 

 rhachis flattened, much narrower than the spikelets, glabrous, 

 sometimes ending in a naked mucro; spikelets T V-| in., sessile,, 

 gibbously globose, biseriate, closely imbricate, glabrous; 

 glume I half as long as III, transversely oblong, hyaline, 

 faintly 3-veined, II and III with veins anastomising above,. 

 II much shorter than IV, orbicular, thin, 7-veined, III shorter 

 than IV, orbicular, 5 -veined, paleate, empty, IV broadly ovate 

 or ovoid, tip acute, incurved, very convex, striolate-punctate, 

 white, sides of palea infolded nearly to the middle, striolate. 



Warmer parts of the island ; very common. Spikelets green, nearly- 

 white, almost shining. 



Tropical Asia and Africa. 



A depauperate dwarf state occurs in the Mannar district. 



3. F. punctatum, Burm. Fl. Ind. 26 (1768). 



P. mucronatum, Roth, Nov. Sp. 45. P.fluitans, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 293, 

 (non Retz.). C. P. 864, and 898 in Herb. Kew. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 29. Duthie, Indig. Fodd. Grass, t. 44. 



Perennial, quite glabrous ; stem prostrate at the often 

 floating base, 2-4 ft, rooting at the lower very stout spongy 

 nodes; 1. 4-8 in., linear, acute or acuminate, base narrow, 

 veins many, slender, lower sheaths inflated, ligule a ridge of 

 hairs; spikes many, £-1 in. long, distant, sessile, longer than 

 the internodes, appressed to the rhachis, which is flattened, 

 xV in. broad, margins smooth, tip excurrent, acicular, as long 

 as the terminal spikelet ; spikelets t V~tV m -> sessile, imbricate, 

 biseriate, secund, ovate-oblong, glabrous ; glumes membranous, 

 I very short, truncate, II about half as long as IV, sub- 

 orbicular, 3-veined, tip truncate or rounded, III ovate, acute, 

 3-5-veined, neuter, IV as long as III, ovate, cuspidately 

 acuminate, thinly coriaceous, palea coriaceous, with inflexed 

 membranous sides; grain orbicular, compressed, enclosed in 

 the thickened white granulate glume. 



Marshes in the hotter parts of the Island. 



India, Malaya, N. Africa. 



Closely resembles P. fluitans, and often confounded with it, but 

 distinguished by the granulate fruiting glume. The numbers C. P. 864^ 

 898, are from specimens in Herb. Kew. The only one of this plant iru 

 Herb. Peraden. was collected by Dr. Trimen near Kurunegala, Dec. 

 1883; it bears no number. 



