Panicum^ Graminece. 1 49 



or binate, spreading, capillary, few-fid. ; spikelets xV^iV in-, 

 subsolitary, pedicelled, pedicels sometimes as long as the 

 glumes, gibbously ovoid, decurved, glabrous ; glume I minute, 

 broadly ovate, veinless, II and III herbaceous, costately 

 closely veined, II cymbiform or almost galeate, subacute, 

 <p-ii-veined, base saccately tumid, III much narrower, ovate- 

 oblong, flat, acute, 3-5-veined, paleate, empty, palea linear- 

 oblong, IV sessile, smaller than III, ovoid-oblong, subacute, 

 dorsally convex, coriaceous, quite smooth, shining, pale 

 yellowish, margins narrowly incurved. 



Hotter parts of the Island; Kandy, Colombo, Trincomalie, &c. 



Southern India, Madagascar, S. Africa. 



A very elegant grass, closely allied to P. indicum, though differing 

 totally in inflorescence. A good fodder grass ; forms a large portion of 

 the fodder collected by the grass-women near Colombo for horses. 



26. P. ovalifolium, Poir. Encycl. Supp. iv. 279 (1797). 



Herm. Mus. 6. Burm. Thes. m. Fl. Zcyl. n. 43. Thw. Enum. 359. 

 Trim, in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxiv. 135. P.brevifolium, Roxb.; Moon, Cat. 8. 

 C. P. 889. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 44. Beauv. Fl. Owar. t. no, f. 1. 



Stem 2-3 ft., decumbent and rooting for the greater part 

 of its length, then ascending, sparingly branched, leafy, 

 glabrous, internodes 1-3 in., nodes glabrous, often emitting 

 long, solitary, wiry roots; 1. 1-2J in., ovate-lanceolate from a 

 cordate amplexicaul base, acuminate, thin, flat, spreading, 

 glabrous or sparsely hairy, basal auricles crenulate and ciliate 

 with long hairs, veins many, very slender, margins scabrid, 

 sheaths long, upper 3 in., margins naked or ciliolate, ligule a 

 ridge of fine hairs; panicle sessile on or shortly exserted from 

 the uppermost 1. -sheath, erect, effuse, 3-5 by 1-3 in., broadly 

 oblong or obovoid, rhachis slender, naked or with long 

 spreading hairs, branches very many, erecto-patent, capillary, 

 alternate or the lower fascicled, sparingly divided ; spikelets 

 few, distant, erect, rg~Tz m -, much shorter than their capillary 

 pedicels, gibbously ovoid, pubescent or hirsute or the terminal 

 on the branches villous with long white hairs; glumes I— III 

 membranous, I nearly as long as III, oblong, obtuse, 3-5- 

 veined, II much broader, galeate, dorsally very convex, often 

 very persistent, III oblong, obtuse, flat, 5 -veined, paleate, 

 male, palea large, margins inflected, IV shorter than II, 

 sessile, oblong, acute, coriaceous, smooth, shining, dorsally 

 •convex and obscurely keeled, margins narrowly incurved. 



Warmer parts of the Island; very common. 

 Eastern Himalaya, Burma, Malaya, China, Trop. Africa. 

 Forms a large proportion of the sward near Colombo (Ferguson) 

 Some Indian specimens have much larger spikelets. 



