190 Graminecz. [Leptaspis. 



striate, base cordate, amplexicaul, midrib o, sheath of lower 

 1. very short, of upper long, ligule o; raceme 1-8 in. long, 

 often flexuous, rhachis very slender, not articulate, glabrous ; 

 spikelets crowded, T V in. long, rhachilla o ; glumes I and II with 

 minutely scabrid awns ^-| in. long and ciliate keels, I his- 

 pidulous, tip entire or minutely notched, II glabrous, except the 

 ciliate keel, III about § as long as I and II, excessively thin. 



Hotter parts of the Island; abundant, especially in sandy soil. 

 Afghanistan, Trop. Asia, Africa, and Australia. 



Remarkable for its long bottle-brush-like raceme of metallic-coloured 

 flowers (Ferguson). The spikes vary from green to red-brown. 



23. LEPTASPIS, Br. 



Perennial, monoecious grasses ; rootstock creeping ; 1. 

 petioled on the sheath, bifarious, elliptic-oblong, flat, midrib 

 and few principal veins slender, venules very close, trabeculate 

 with cross venules ; panicle long-peduncled, stiff, erect, 

 branches whorled, bearing short alternate branchlets ; spike- 

 lets selitary, distant, i-fld., articulate on very short pedicels ; 

 — male spikelets in the upper part of the panicle, minute, 

 glumes 3, I and II broad, flat, unequal, membranous, gla- 

 brous, spreading from a very narrow base, upper largest, III 

 •cymbiform, pubescent, palea linear, 2-lobed, lobes narrow ; 

 lodicules o ; stam. 6, fil. very short, anth. linear, pistillode o ; 

 — fern, spikelet, glumes I and II as in the male, III a pubes- 

 cent rapidly accrescent utricle, with a terminal or lateral 

 •orifice from which the tip of the palea and the stigmas pro- 

 trude, greatly enlarged in frt, palea linear, tip notched, 

 accrescent and hardening in age ; staminodes 6, very minute; 

 ov. minute, gibbous, style slender, elongating with the growth 

 of the glume, stigmas 3, exserted, spreading, penicillate; grain 

 not seen. — Sp. 6 ; 2 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Utricle erect, orifice terminal 1. L. tjrceolata. 



Utricle decurved, orifice lateral 2. L. COCHLEATA. 



1. Xi. urceolata, Br. in Benn. PI. Jav. Rar. 23 (1838). 

 Thw. Enum. 357. L. zeylanica, Nees ex Steud. Syn. Gram. 8. Pharus 

 .u^ceolatus, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 611. C. P. 972. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 95. Benn. 1. c. t. 6. 



Rootstock short, stout ; stem 2-3 ft, simple or branched 

 towards the base, leafy, about as thick as a goose-quill below, 

 smooth, polished, nearly solid, internodes short, loosely 

 .sheathed, upper 2-4 in., lower rooting; 1. 6-10 by i|-2| in., 

 from linear- or elliptic-oblong to obovate-oblong, acute or 



