Pollinia.'] Graminece. 203. 



keeled, 1-3-veined, III hyaline, paleate or not, IV hyaline, 

 2-cleft, awned in the sinus, awn slender, column brown, palea 

 very short; anth. 2 or 3, linear; styles short, stigmas long, very 

 narrow; grain oblong. — Sp. about 32; 23 in Fl. B. Ind. 



The above diagnosis embraces the Ceylon species. The genus is 

 closely allied to Ischczmum, which is described as differing in the 

 dissimilarity of the sessile from the pedicelled spikelets, a character 

 that does not hold good in some Ceylon species. In so far as these 

 are concerned, Pollinia may be better distinguished by its slender inter- 

 nodes of the spikes and pedicels, and the, when present, minute broad 

 truncate ciliate palea of glume IV. The subgenus Amphilophis of 

 Andropogon may easily be mistaken for Pollinia. 



Leaf-base not conspicuously contracted. 

 Basal sheaths of stem naked. 



Spikelets \-\ in. i. P. Thwaitesii. 



Spikelets ^ in 2. P. argentea. 



Basal sheaths of stem tomentose . . . . 3. P. phteothrix. 



Leaf-base conspicuously contracted . . . . 4. P. CIL1ATA. 



1. P. Thwaitesii, Hack. MonOgr. Androp. 163 (ii 

 P. tristachycE, Thw. forma, Thw. Enum. 368. P. tristachya, var. 

 distachya, Trim. Cat. Ceyl. PI. 106. C. P. 949. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. in. 



Perennial; stems 12-14 m -> densely tufted, stout, erect, 

 rigid, glabrous except below the infl., internodes few, nodes 

 glabrous; 1. mostly radical with a few cauline, radical 1. very 

 many, crowded, 4-6 in. long, erect, filiform, wiry, ^ in. diam. 

 from the sides being involute to the strong pale midrib, 

 gradually acuminate, striate, quite glabrous, passing gradually 

 into the sheaths, which are 1-2 in. long, coriaceous, open, 

 dilating downwards, the base only equitant, mouth not 

 auricled, margins bearded with a tuft of long erect silky hairs, 

 ligule a short membrane; cauline 1. very narrow, flat above 

 the sheath, uppermost with usually spathiform narrow erect 

 compressed sheaths 3-4 in. long, tipped by a subulate limb; 

 spikes 2-3, 1-3 in. long by h in. across the spikelets, rhachis 

 filiform, fragile, plano-convex, and pedicels densely silkily 

 villous, internodes half as long as the spikelets; sessile 

 spikelets ^ in., callus short, bearded, glume I chartaceous, 

 oblanceolate-oblong, dorsally fiat or somewhat depressed, 

 softly hairy, tip truncate, erose, margins narrowly incurved, 

 densely silkily ciliate, 2- veined at the flexures, II oblanceolate, 

 acuminate, I -veined, chartaceous, dorsally rounded, margins 

 involute, more or less ciliate towards the tip, III like II but 

 smaller, membranous, veins o, IV shorter, oblong, bifid, 

 scarious, lobes ciliolate, awn about -^ in., column short, palea 

 very short, quadrate, erose, ciliate; lodicules minute, cuneate; 



