146 Grammece. \Panicuim 



erect, 6-10 in., contracted, very much branched, branches alt. or 

 crowded, subsimple, lower up to 5 in. long, covered from base 

 to tip with crowded, subsecund fascicles of very short racemes 

 of erect, imbricating spikelets, rhachis of panicle and branches 

 angled and channelled, smooth or scaberulous ; spikelets tV~f 

 in., sessile or very shortly pedicelled, oblong- lanceolate, 

 acute, subterete, glabrous ; glume I about one-third of III, 

 obtuse or acute, hyaline, strongly 3-5-veined, II and III 

 subequal, thinly herbaceous, ovate-oblong or lanceolate, acute 

 or acuminate, strongly 5-veined, III paleate, neuter, IV as 

 long as III, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, thinly coriaceous, 

 dorsally convex, quite smooth, white. 



Damp places ; common. Suffragam district, Ratnapura (Thwaites), 

 Duval Kanda (Moon). 



Malaya, China. 



In Tndian specimens hairy leaves and larger spikelets occur. Ferguson 

 says that it climbs to a height of 10-12 ft. when supported. 



21. P. XtXyurus, H. B. and K. Nov. Gen. and Sp. i. 98 (181 5). 

 excl. syn. Lamk. 



Thw. Enum. 361. C. P. 3238. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 39. Beauv. Agrost. t. 10, f. 8 (Hymenanche Myuros). 



Perennial, quite glabrous; stem 2-6 ft., ascending from a 

 long creeping and rooting or floating rootstock ; lower inter- 

 nodes 2-4 in., as thick as a swan's quill, spongy within, 

 emitting fascicles of stout roots several in. long clothed 

 with root-hairs, upper internodes long, strict; 1. 12-18 by \-\ 

 in., narrowed from above the base to a finely acuminate point, 

 soft, flat, base rounded or subcordate, margin smooth or 

 minutely scaberulous, sheath 2-4 in., margins smooth, ligule 

 very short, truncate or rounded, membranous; panicle 6-10 

 long by \-% in. diam., strict, erect, rhachis stout, angular, 

 densely covered with the short, erect, appressed, imbricating 

 racemes; spikelets \-\ in., very shortly pedicelled, narrowly 

 lanceolate, terete; glume I one-third as long as III, broadly 

 ovate, acute, 3-veined, hyaline, II and III lanceolate, strongly 

 3-veined, tapering into strict, subulate, scabrid tips, III with 

 a much longer tip than II, neuter, palea small or o, IV 

 nearly as long as II, oblong-lanceolate, acute, very thin, 

 white, 3-veined ; grain very small, oblong, tip contracted, 

 embryo large, orbicular. 



Marshy places in the hotter parts of the Island. 



Tropical Asia, Australia, and America. 



The lowest spikelets are sometimes decurrent on the stem below the 

 panicle. Ferguson says of it, one of the grasses which rapidly spread 

 over shallow bits of water and helps to choke them up. Cattle are fond 

 of it. The almost awned glumes II and III and the very thin fruiting 

 glume IV are characters foreign to the genus. 



