202 GraminecB. [Polttnia.. 



slender habit, narrower leaves, shorter spikelets, and shorter hairs on the 

 callus. 



Commonly used for fencing about Colombo (Ferguson). 



2. S. arundinaceum, Rets. Obs. iv. 14 (1786). Eambuk, 6V 

 Pey-karumu, T. 



S. procertun, Roxb.; Trim. Cat. Ceyl. PI. 106. C. P. 3939. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 119. Rheede, Hort. Mai. xii. t. 46. 



Stem 6-20 ft., erect from a stout rootstock, | in. diam.,. 

 spongy within, internodes 6-12 in., terete, smooth, uppermost 

 glabrous under the panicle ; 1. 3-5 ft. by 1-2 in. below the 

 middle, tapering thence upwards to a long filiform point, and 

 slightly downwards to the base, coriaceous, smooth on both 

 surfaces, glaucous beneath, margins spinulose, midrib up to 

 \ in. broad, shining, veins many, very slender, sheaths terete,, 

 coriaceous, mouth not auricled, sides bearded, ligule short,, 

 lunate, hairy; panicle 1-2 ft., dense-fid., ovoid or oblong, erect,, 

 decompound, rhachis stout, glabrous, branches half whorled, 

 spreading in fl. ascending in fr., filiform ; spikes 1-3 in.,. 

 rhachis, filiform, fragile, internodes |— \ in., villous, tips obconic;. 

 spikelets T V in., clothed with long, soft, creamy or purplish 

 woolly hairs up to \ in. long, callus very short ; glume I 

 oblong-ovate, acuminate, dorsally convex, margins incurved, 

 1 -veined in the flexures, II lanceolate, acuminate, 1-3-veined, 

 margins above the middle and keel ciliate with long hairs,. 

 Ill oblong, hyaline, obtuse, 1 -veined, margin above shortly 

 ciliate, IV smaller, lanceolate, subaristately acuminate, margins 

 ciliate above, palea quadrate, ciliate; lodicules irregular in 

 shape; anth. ^ in. 



Abundant up to 2000 fr. (Ferguson). Panicle pale brown or purplish. 

 The Gangetic Plain and Southern China. 

 One of the elephant grasses of Ceylon. 



SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM, /.., the sugar cane, is cultivated 

 in Ceylon. There is a flowering specimen of it in Herb. Peradeniya 

 from the Bridge of Boats, Colombo (Ferguson). 



29. POX.X1XNXA, Trin, 

 Annual or perennial grasses; infl. of solitary or binate, 

 shortly racemed or fascicled, more or less hirsute or silky spikes, 

 rhachis of spike articulate, more or less fragile, internodes and 

 pedicels of upper spikelets usually slender ; spikelets 1 - 2-fld.,. 

 binate, a sessile and pedicelled, those of each pair similar in 

 form and sex or nearly so, callus short, bearded ; glumes 4, 1 and 

 1 1 subequal, chartaceous or coriaceous, I dorsally flat or concave,, 

 rarely convex, margins incurved or inflexed, 2-keeled or 

 winged above, II as long as I, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate,. 



