£g,ccharum.\ Graminece. 20 1 



filiform branches and branchlets (spikes;, branches and 

 spikes articulate, usually fragile; spikelets i-fld., all alike, 

 bisexual, not awned, articulate at the base, a sessile and 

 pedicelled, the sessile deciduous with the internode and 

 pedicel, callus bearded with very long hairs; glumes 4, I and 

 II subequal, membranous or subcoriaceous, I oblong or lan- 

 ceolate, dorsally flat or convex, margins incurved or infiexed, 

 1-2-veined at each flexure, keels not winged or scaberulous, 



II concave, dorsally rounded or obscurely keeled, III hyaline> 

 oblong, IV various or o, awn o, palea minute or o; lodicules 

 cuneate or irregularly formed; stam. 3; styles and stigmas 

 short, laterally exserted; grain oblong or subglobose. — Sp. 14; 

 5 in Fl. B. Ind. 



■Glume 1 subulate-lanceolate, dorsally flat . . 1. S. SPONTANEUM. 

 Glume I oblong, dorsally convex . . . 2. S. ARUNDINACEUM. 



1. S. spontaneum, Linn. A/an/, ii. 183 ([771). 



Thw. Enum. 369. Moon, Cat. 7. C. P. 3681. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 118. Trin. Fund. Agrost. t. 15, f. 1-6. 



Stem 4—8 ft., erect from a stout rootstock, as thick as a 

 swan's quill below, solid, smooth, polished, leafy, silky beneath 

 the panicle; 1. i§-2§ ft., rarely more than -J- in. broad, erect, 

 narrowly linear, acuminate, narrowed downwards into the 

 stout midrib, rigid, coriaceous, glabrous, smooth, or scaberulous 

 above and on the often involute margins, tips capillary, 

 sheaths smooth, mouth fimbriate, auricled, ligule ovate, mem- 

 branous; panicle 1-2 ft., lanceolate, rhachis slender, smooth, 

 glabrous below, silky upwards, branches or spikes 3-5-nate, 

 2-4 in., simple or divided ; rhachis almost capillary, 

 fragile, sparsely silvery silky with very long hairs, internodes 

 longer or shorter than the spikelets ; spikelets |- \ in., callus 

 minute, bearded with spreading silky hairs \ in. long; glume I 

 subulate-lanceolate, acuminate, gibbous and coriaceous at 

 the base, hyaline above it, margins smooth, incurved with 

 a vein in the flexure, II rather shorter, oblong-ovate, acumi- 

 nate, keeled, base opaque, 1 -veined, keel and margins ciliate, 



III ovate- lanceolate, acuminate, ciliate, veins o, IV very 

 slender, ciliate, palea very minute, ciliate; lodicules cuneate 



■or quadrate, toothed or lunate, with often a single long hair at 



■one angle; anth. linear. 



Hotter parts of the Island; common. Panicle silvery. 

 Warm regions of Asia and Australia. 



Referred by Hackel (Monogr. Androp. 114) to sub-species genuinum, 

 ithe common Asiatic form distinguished from the African by its more 



