Rottboellia^ Graminece. 207 



loose, glabrous, keeled, mouth not auricled, ligule short, 

 membranous, ciliate; spikes few or many, often fascicled, 

 2-4 in. long, erect, strict or curved, herbaceous, dark green, 

 rhachis almost inarticulate, internodes broad, much shorter 

 than the spikelets, glabrous, striate; spikelets glabrous, callus 

 small, naked ; sessile spikelet \- \ in. ; glume I oval-oblong, 

 subacute, thinly coriaceous, 7-9- veined, II as long, adherent 

 to the cavity of the internode, oblong-ovate, acute, mem- 

 branous, 3-veined (2 submarginal), III and IV shorter, oblong, 

 obtuse, hyaline, veins o, palea very short, linear, obtuse; anth. 

 ■jo in. or shorter; pedicelled spikelet longer and narrower than 

 the sessile, male or if bisexual with very small anth., glumes 

 I and II lanceolate, acuminate, herbaceous, III and IV as in 

 the lower spikelet. 



Common in warmer parts of the Island. 



All warm countries. 



2. R. exaltata, Linn.f. Suftftl. 114 (1781). 

 Thw. Enum. 364. C. P. 2386. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 156. Roxb. Cor. PL t. 157. 



Perennial; stems 6-10 ft., stout, erect, leafy, solid, smooth, 

 branching from the base, glabrous, or hairy below; 1. 6-24 by 

 —I in., linear-lanceolate, setaceously acuminate, narrowed 

 from the middle to the base, scaberulous on both surfaces, 

 margins spinulosely scabrid, midrib stout, prominent beneath, 

 smooth, veins very slender, sheaths loose, glabrous or hispid, 

 mouth contracted, ligule short, ciliate; spikes 3-6 in., terete, 

 glabrous, fragile, tip slender with imperfect spikelets, inter- 

 nodes \—\ in., dorsally rounded, smooth ; sessile spikelet 

 rather shorter than the internode, \-\ in. ; glume I ovate- 

 oblong, obtuse or tip emarginate, thickly coriaceous, smooth, 

 base truncate, veins many, obscure, margins scaberulous, II 

 gibbously convex or hemispheric, acute, chartaceous, 9-1 1- 

 veined, keel scabrid shortly winged towards the tip, III oblong, 

 acute, 3-veined, rigid, paleate, male, palea like the glume, 

 coriaceous, margins hyaline, IV shorter, ovate from a broad 

 base, acute, 1 -veined, fern., palea like the glume, obtuse, 

 2-veined; lodicules quadrate, subulate at one angle; anth. 

 T V in. ; style and stigmas short ; pedicelled spikelet more or 

 less imperfect, male or neuter, glume I narrowly winged, 

 II-IV narrower, paleas of III and IV notched at the tip. 



Common in the hotter parts of the Island. 



Plains and lower hills of India, and in Trop. Asia, Africa, Australia, 

 Jamaica. 



3. R. nig-rescens, Thw. Enum. 364. (li 



C. P. 867. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 157. 



