1 74 Graminece . [Spinifex-^ 



from the median; fruit £-■£ in. long and broad, with a deflexed 

 and incurved beak, caducous. 



Sea-coast, Tangalle, Columbo Spikelets pale. 



Laccadive, Nicobar, and Malay Islds., Madagascar, Australia, Poly- 

 nesia. 



The fruit, formed of the accrescent hardened base of the spike en- 

 closing the glumes and grain, is very curious ; it resembles 'gram,' the 

 seed of Cicer arietinum.. It becomes forced underground to enable it 

 to ripen (Ferguson). 



13. SPXNIFEX, L. 



Gregarious, much branched, rigid bushes; stem and' 

 branches woody ; 1. very narrow, rigid, spreading and 

 recurved, thickly coriaceous; infl. dicecious, of large terminal' 

 globose bracteate heads with radiating spikes; male heads 

 with many spikelets in each spike, fern, with one only ; 

 male spikelets 1-2-fld., distichous, articulate on short pedicels;, 

 glumes 4, chartaceous, acute or pungent, strongly veined, I 

 and II empty, III paleate, empty or triandrous, IV thinly 

 coriaceous, paleate, triandrous, paleas of III and IV as long 

 as their glumes, acuminate ; anth. linear ; fern, spikelets 

 narrower than the male, erect, lanceolate, i-fld., glumes acute 

 or acuminate, veined as in the male, I longest, III empty; 

 IV thin, dorsally compressed, palea linear-oblong, acuminate; 

 lodicules 2, large, connate below, strongly veined ; styles long, 

 connate below, stigmas long, shortly feathery, exserted at 

 the top of the glume; grain clavate, tipped by the long rigid 

 style, free within the hardened glume and palea. — Sp. 4; 1 in 

 Fl. B. Ind. 



A genus of doubtful affinity. 



1. S. squarrosus, Linn. Mant. ii. 300 (1771). Maha-rawana- 

 rewula, S. 



Thvv. Enum. 362. Stipa sfiinifex, Linn. 1. c. i. 84. S. littorea, Burm. 

 Fl. Ind. 29. C. P. 947. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 63. Lamk. 111. t. 840. Rheede, Hort. Mai. xii. t. 75. 



A pale grey or glaucous squarrose bush, several feet high 

 and broad, forming an impenetrable scrub ; stem as thick as 

 the little finger below, smooth, solid ; 1. 4-6 in., spreading and 

 recurved, smooth, tapering from the base to the tip, concavo- 

 convex, base not dilated, margins scaberulous, sheath |-i in., 

 smooth, margins eciliate, ligule a ridge of short stiff hairs; 

 male infl. up to 8 in. diam. ; bracts shorter than the spikes,, 

 lanceolate, aristately pungent, flat, chartaceous, midrib very 

 prominent beneath; male spikes 1-3 in., longer than the stout 



