Perotis.~\ Graminece. 189- 



short, laterally exserted, penicillate; grain free, conical, obtuse,, 

 concave in front, base gibbously incurved. — Monotypic. 



Xi. ornithocephala, Dene, in Archiv. Mus. Par. i. 147 (1839) in. 

 nota. 



Holboellia ornithocephala, Wall, in Hook. Bot. Misc. ii. 144. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 98. Wall. 1. c. t. 76. 



Stem erect or ascending, 6-18 in. high, simple or sparingly 

 branched, smooth, polished, lower internodes about 1 in. or 

 shorter, upper long, nodes glabrous; 1. |— 1 in., acuminate, 

 smooth, margins ciliolate, base cordate, sheaths usually shorter 

 than the internodes, smooth, mouth not auricled, ligule a very 

 narrow membrane; raceme 2-4 in., cylindric, dense-fid., rhachis 

 slender, strict, glabrous, pedicels about T V in. long, spreading, 

 hispidulous, thickened under the spikelet, but not articulate; 

 spikelets y T in. long, adnate by a broad oblique base to the 

 pedicel; glume I minutely tuberculate, III about one eighth 

 of the length of II, persistent, grain when ripe apparently- 

 much longer than glume III. 



Mannar Isld., on hot sand, under palms (Trimen, Feb. 1890). Spike- 

 lets green, at length red-brown. 



Also a native of the South province of the Deccan, where it was first 

 found by Kcenig. 



The most bizarre of grasses in the form of the spikelets. 



22. PEROTIS, Ait. 

 A small, densely tufted, rigid grass, root-fibres wiry 7 ; stem 

 erect or ascending ; 1. very short, ovate or ovate-lanceolate,, 

 pungently acuminate, ciliate; spikelets minute, terete, articu- 

 late on the very short pedicels of a spiciform raceme, linear- 

 lanceolate; glumes 3, I and II empty, equal, linear-oblong,, 

 membranous, with a strong midrib produced into a very 

 long capillary awn, III minute, hyaline, ovate-lanceolate,. 

 1 -veined, palea smaller, oblong, hyaline, veinless ; lodicules 2, 

 quadrate; stam. 3, anth. short; styles very short, connate at 

 the base, laterally exserted, stigmas very short, plumose; 

 grain linear, terete, subacute, as long as and free in the two 

 empty glumes. — Monotypic. 



P. latifolia, Ait. Hort. Ken: i. 8;: (1789). 



Herm. Mus. 6. Burm. Thes. 105. Fl. Zeyl. n. 25. Thw. Enum. 369. 

 Moon, Cat. 7. Anthoxanthum indiciim, L. Sp. PL 28. C. P. 3164. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 98. Beauv. Agrost. t. 4, f. 9. Kunth, Revis. Gram. t. 92. 



Stem very short, stout, branching from the base, branches 

 some very short, leafing only, others 3-10 in. high, ascending, 

 leafy below, sheathed above, ending in a slender crinite 

 raceme; 1. \-\ in., fiat, ovoid, spreading, glaucous green^ 



