200 Grammes. [Sacckarum. 



leaves of leptorhachis are contracted at the sheath and the stems waxy 

 below the nodes, whereas in D. gracilis the leaves pass insensibly into 

 the sheath and the stems are not waxy. I see no difference in the leaf- 

 bases, and I do not find the wax in either. The name gracilis is not 

 appropriate. 



27. IMPERATA, Cyrill. 



Erect, perennial grasses ; stem leafy, internodes solid ; 

 1. narrow ; infl. a silvery-silky subcylindric panicle, with very 

 short filiform branches and spikes, rhachis of branches and 

 spikes not articulate ; spikelets all alike and bisexual, narrow, 

 terete, immersed in very long hairs from the small callus 

 and outer glumes, binate, a sessile and pedicelled, articulate at 

 the base, fugacious, i-fld.; glumes 4, I and II subequal, mem- 

 branous, dorsall)' rounded or II obscurely keeled, 3-5 -veined 

 at the base, I ovate-lanceolate, tip hyaline, obtuse, II acumi- 

 nate, III and IV very short, erose, palea minute ; lodicules o; 

 stam. 1 or 2 ; styles connate below, stigmas very long, narrow, 

 exserted at the top of the spikelets ; grain oblong. — Sp. 5 ; 

 1 in Fl. B. Ind. 



X. arundinacea, Cyrill. PL Rar. Neap. fasc. ii. 27 (1792). Xluk, .V. 



Thw. Enum. 369. Moon, Cat. 7 (Saccharum). C. P. 968. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 106. Cyrill. 1. c. t. n. Reichb. Ic. Fl. Cerm. t. 55. 



Rootstock stoloniferous, often creeping; stem 6 in-3 ft, 

 stout or slender, smooth, glabrous, nodes naked or bearded ; 

 1. 6-18 by tV-jj in., flat, tapering from the middle to a finely 

 acuminate tip, and to a very narrow often ciliate base, smooth 

 above, beneath and margins scaberulous, sheaths loose, 

 glabrous or margins ciliate, mouth not auricled, bearded, 

 ligule of long soft hairs ; panicle 3-8 in., silvery white, with 

 dark purple anthers and stigmas, internodes of spikes short, 

 tips dilated ; spikelets |-^ in., lanceolate, hairs of callus and 

 glumes twice as long as the spikelet ; glume I pale green or 

 yellowish, veins not reaching the tip, II with very long hairs 

 dorsally, III and IV hyaline, veinless, erose, and ciliolate, 

 III oblong, about half as long as I, IV still shorter, quadrate, 

 palea variable. 



Common in the hotter parts of the Island. Panicle silvery white. 



All warm countries. 



A pest in ground that has gone out of cultivation. The leaves make 

 an excellent thatch. I have described the glumes as I find them in 

 Ceylon specimens, but the inner especially vary greatly in those from 

 other countries. 



28. SACCHARUM, L. 



Tall, perennial grasses; 1. narrow, flat; infl. and large silky 



much and densely branched panicle with spreading or erect 



