Tragus.] Graminece. 187 



Sandy ground near the sea in the N. of the Island; Jaffna, abundant. 



Also in the Carnatic. 



In describing this curious and difficult grass in FJ. B. Ind., I over- 

 looked the very minute palea of glume III. I find also that the spikelets 

 are not truly articulate at the base. Some Indian specimens have longer 

 spikes and nearly glabrous leaves. 



19. TRAGUS, Mailer. 

 A small, perennial, rigid, densely tufted, depressed grass ; 

 stems short, leafy; 1. small, subdistichously imbricate, flat, 

 ciliate; spikelets in terminal spikes, binate on very short 

 pedicels that are articulate with the rhachis, i-fld. ; glumes 3,. 

 I very minute, hyaline, II cymbiform, oblong- lanceolate, 

 thickly coriaceous, empty, strongly 5 -ribbed, margins mem- 

 branous, inflexed, closely embracing III, ribs armed with long 

 stout hook-tipped spines, III bisexual, oblong -lanceolate,, 

 acuminate, dorsally compressed, thin, scaberulous, sides in- 

 curved, palea nearly as long as the glume; lodicules minute, 

 subquadrate; stam. 3, anth. short, broad; styles 2, free, very 

 long, exserted at the top of the glume, stigmas long, penicillate;; 

 grain linear-oblong, free in the glume and palea. — Monotypic. 



T. racemosus, Scop. Introd. 73 (1777). 



Trim. Cat. Ceyl. P). 106. Lappago biflora, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 281. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 97. Duthie, Indig. Fodd. Grass. Ind. t. 14. Host, 

 Gram. Austriac. i. t. 36 {Lappago). Reichb, Ic. Fl. Germ. i. t. 30 (Lappago). 

 Stems very many, spreading from the root, ascending, 

 2-6 in. high, leafy below, nearly naked above, lower inter- 

 nodes very short, upper long, nodes glabrous; 1. \— I in., 

 usually densely crowded and bifarious in the lower part of the 

 stem (except in drawn up stems), ovate-lanceolate, acuminate,, 

 rigidly coriaceous, pungent, flat, smooth, base amplexicaul, 

 margins pectinatcly ciliate, lower sheaths very short, usually 

 compressed, equitant, of upper 1. elongate, terete, ligule a ridge 

 of fine hairs; spike \-2 in. long, cylindric, rhachis filiform, 

 pubescent; pedicels of each pair of spikelets T V in., scabrid;. 

 spikelets \ in., acute; glume I appressed to the base of II, 

 spines of II as long as the glume is broad, spreading. 



Dry pasture ground, &c. Trincomalie, Mannar district, Southern 

 Prov. at Kirinda. 



All warm countries, South Europe. 



Three or more spikelets are described as occurring on a single pedicel 

 in this species, but I find 2 only in Indian and Ceylon specimens. 

 Glume I is so minute and hyaline as to be easily overlooked (perhaps 

 not always present). The two spikelets of each pair are inserted close 

 together, facing one another, so as to resemble two glumes of one 

 spikelet. Much longer leaves and spikes occur on Continental 

 specimens. 



