Dzmerza.] Graminecz. 199 



spikes 1 or 2, 3-4 in. long, more or less curved, nut-brown, 

 rhachis flat, y T to nearly -^ in. broad, margins softly ciliate, 

 internodes very short ; spikelets sessile, -j in. long, callus 

 minute, bearded ; glumes I and II subequal, acuminate, 

 villously hairy more or less all over, II oblong- lanceolate, 

 keel with a minute scaberulous wing close under the tip, 

 III narrowly spathulate, ciliate above the middle, TV oblong, 

 obtusely bifid, awn h in. long; palea and lodicules obscure or o; 

 anth. ys ^ n v narrowly linear. 



Hab. ? (Trimen), Elpiliya Patana (Pearson). 



Endemic. 



I find in the Peradeniya Herbarium an unnumbered sheet with three 

 specimens of this plant without habitat, marked D. ornithoftoda, var. y, 

 by Dr. Trimen. It resembles what would be a very large stout perennial 

 state of D. pubescens with longer narrower woolly leaves and sheaths, but 

 differs from that plant in the smaller spikelets, glume II of which has 

 no other wing to the keel than a minute dilatation close under the tip. 



7. D. gracilis, Nees ex Stend. Syn. Gram. 413 (1854). 



D. gracilis and leptorhachis, Hack. Monogr. Androp. 88, 89. Fl. B. 

 Ind. vii. 105. D. pilosissima, Thw. Enum. 369, non Trim. D. Lixiii>cula y 

 Thw. ex Trim, in Journ. Dot. xxiii. (1885), 272. C. P. 24, 3261, 3863. 



Fl. B. Ind. 1. c. 



Perennial ; stems densely tufted, 2-3 ft. high, stout, erect, 

 sometimes as thick as a small goose-quill below, leafy almost 

 up to the spikes, rarely branched, nodes silk}- or glabrous ; 

 1. 6-10 by §— \ in., erect, rigid, narrowly linear, finely acumi- 

 nate, somewhat broader about the middle, base narrowed into 

 the sheath, glabrous or pilose, margins smooth, veins slender, 

 sheaths terete, mouth not auricled, li^ule short, broad, mem- 

 branous ciliolate ; spikes 3-10, 3-5 in. long, very slender, 

 flexuous, pale brown, lax-fid., rhachis filiform, obtusely tri- 

 gonous or subterete, glabrous, smooth, internodes \-\ in. ; 

 spikelets \-\ in., pedicels long or short, terete, smooth, lower 

 sometimes half as long as the spikelet, callus very short, 

 densely bearded ; glumes I and II subequal or II longest, 

 acuminate or aristulate, glabrous or villous with long hairs, 

 I more or less scaberulous, II linear, membranous and 

 glistening for half its breadth, hyaline margins ciliate, keel 

 rounded, smooth or minutely scaberulous, wing o, III obvate- 

 oblong, ciliate above the middle, vein 1 or o, IV oblong, 

 acutely bifid, awn \- § in., palea very minute, narrow, ciliate; 

 lodicules large, broadly cuneate ; anth. T V - |- in- 

 Southern and Central Provinces. Adam's Peak ^Gardner;, Gibson's 

 Hill, Galle, and Pasdun Korale (Thwaites), Labugama and Caltura 

 (Trimen). 



I am unable to distinguish D. leptorhachis, Hack., from D. gracilis 

 by any character. The main difference, according to Hackel, is that the 



