1 70 GramineCB '. \Pennisetum. 



1 in., upper very short, few-fld., rhachis trigonous, scaberulous; 

 spikelets T V in., few, solitary or binate, loosely imbricate; 

 glumes I — 1 1 1 hyaline, ciliate and silkily hairy, I shorter than 

 III, broadly ovate, 5-veined, awn not longer than the glume, 

 strict, scaberulous, II as long as IV or longer, ovate-oblong, 

 mucronate, 5-veined, III oblong, obtuse, muticous, 7-veined, 

 paleate, empty, palea linear, keels ciliate, IV lanceolate. 



Hot region. Nalande (Thwaites, March 1868). Spikelets very pale 

 green. 



I advance this as a distinct species with some hesitation. It is very 

 closely allied to O. Burmannii, differing in the loosely imbricate spikelets, 

 the slender scaberulous naked rhachis of the spike, which wants the long 

 cilia of Burmannii, in the very short awn of glume I, and fewer veins of 

 glumes II and III. It is named ' 0. comftositus, very young,' by Trimen 

 in Herb. Peraden., from which the short scaberulous awns and silky 

 spikelets at once distinguish it. 



10. FENNISETUM, Pers. 



Annual or perennial grasses; 1. narrow; infl. spiciform 



racemes of involucellate clusters of shortly pedicelled spikelets 



articulate on a rhachis; involucel of unequal, scabrid or 



plumose, simple or branched bristles; spikelets 1-6 on each 



involucel, persistent on their pedicels, 1-2-fld., ovoid; glumes 



3 or 4, I— III hyaline, I small or o, II and III subequal, 



5-7-veined, awned or not, II rarely absent, III paleate or 



not, male or empty, IV sessile, coriaceous, bisexual or fern.; 



lodicules 2; anth. linear; styles free or connate below, stigmas 



laterally (?) exserted from the glume; grain oblong, free within 



the hardened glume and palea. — Sp. 100 enumerated ; 12 in 



Fl. B. Ind. 



Anth. -cells with bearded tips 1. P. typhoideum. 



Anth-cells naked 2. P. orientale. 



1. P. * typhoideum, Rich, in Pers. Syn. i. 72 (1807). Kumba, T. 



Herm. Mus. 32. Burm. Thes. Ill, Fl. Zeyl. n. 44. Trim. Cat. Ceyl. 

 PI. 106. Panicum sfiicalum, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 283. Penicillaria cylindrical, 

 Roem. and Sch. ; Thw. Enum. 361 (in note). C. P. 946. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 83. Jacq. Eclog. Gram. t. 17 (Penic. spicatd). Beauv. 

 Agrost. t. 13, f. 4. 



Annual; stem 3-6 ft., erect, simple or branched from the 

 base, stout or slender, sometimes as thick as the middle 

 linger, solid, leafy, upper internodes glabrous or woolly, lower 

 rooting at the nodes; 1. 1-3 ft. by \-2 in., linear to linear- 

 lanceolate, spreading and drooping, flat, glabrous or hairy, 

 base narrow, rounded, margins scaberulous, sheath long, loose, 

 more or less inflated, margins eciliate, ligule a semicircular 



