2o8 Graminece. [Manisurts. 



Stem 3-4 ft., suberect, or prostrate and rooting at the 

 lower nodes, slender or stout below, branched, leafy, smooth, 

 glabrous or sparsely hairy, solid ; 1. 4-8 by ^-§ in., linear- 

 lanceolate from a broad cordate ciliate base, acuminate, thin,, 

 sparsely hairy above, more so beneath, margins smooth or 

 scaberulous, midrib and veins slender, sheaths loose, hispid or 

 glabrous, margin and mouth ciliate, ligule short, ciliate; spikes 

 solitary, sheathed at the base, 2-3 in. long, slender, terete,, 

 glabrous, internodes |— \ in., dorsally rounded, smooth ; sessile 

 spikelet rather longer than the internode; glume I shortly 

 oval, coriaceous, convex, minutely cancellate in 9 rows, tip 

 with two small scarious rounded wings, margins smooth, II 

 coriaceous, cymbiform, acute, 3-5-veined, keel smooth, shortly 

 winged below the tip, III hyaline, ovate-oblong, obtuse,, 

 paleate, neuter, veins o, palea rather smaller, IV smaller than 

 III, orbicular-oblong, 2-toothed, palea oblong, 2-toothed, 

 lodicules trigonous; anth. jV in.; pedicelled spikelet smaller, 

 male or neuter, glumes I and II narrower, herbaceous, veins 

 strong, green, I smooth, with a single unilateral terminal 

 wing, III epaleate, IV triandrous, tip entire or notched. 



Central Provinces, alt. 4000 ft. (Thvvaites). 



Endemic. 



Ferguson says of this plant (Gram. Indig. to Ceylon, 21), ' I found it in 

 the edges of forest, Abbotsford, at an elevation of 5000 to 6000 ft., in 

 April 1869. At this elevation it is a small compressed plant, and seems 

 to be eaten by wild animals.' 



31. DIANISURIS, Sw. 



Annual, erect, slender, leafy grasses; 1. flat, base cordate, 

 amplexicaul; spikes small, terete, axillary and terminal, 

 shortly peduncled, rhachis green, at length fragile, glabrous,, 

 internodes short, broad, excavate opposite the sessile spike- 

 lets ; spikelets minute, in very dissimilar pairs, a sessile 

 bisexual and a pedicelled male or neuter, the pedicel adnate 

 or closely appressed to the rhachis ; sessile spikelet, glume I 

 globose, hollow, coarsely pitted, with a ventral orifice ap- 

 pressed to the cavity in the rhachis, coriaceous, at length 

 crustaceous, callus tumid, glabrous, II minute, oblong, coria- 

 ceous, i-veined, closing the orifice of I, III and IV very 

 minute, hyaline, convolute, and together forming a conical 

 envelope to the stam. and ov., Ill orbicular, IV (palea?) 

 smaller, broadly oblong; lodicules subquadrate; anth. minute, 

 connective very short; ov. globose, styles and stigmas short; 

 pedicelled spikelet of 2 green glumes, I orbicular, fiat,. 



