2 1 o Graminece. [ischcemum. 



This curious plant has been described under six generic names; three 

 of them are those of pre-established genera, Rottboellia by Roxburgh, 

 Hemarthria by Kunth, and Ophiurus by Trinius, and three were 

 founded on itself, Diperium, Desv. (1831), Thyridostachyum, Nees (1836), 

 and that under which it is here described. A re-examination of it since 

 the publication of the Flora of British India has convinced me that it is a 

 well-founded genus. 



IK. lee vis, Kunth, Revis. Gram. i. 154 (1840). 



Thw. Enum. 364. Rottboellia perforata, Roxb. PL Corom. ii. 43. 

 C. P. 873. Ophiurus perforatus, Trin. ; Hack. Monogr. Androp. 319. 



Fl. B. Ind. 158 (Rotlb. perforata). Kunth, Enum. PI. Suppl. t. 18, f. 3. 

 Desv. Opusc. t. 6, f. 3 {Diperium cylindricum). 



Stem 2-4 ft, erect, rather slender, simple or branched 

 above, as thick as a crow-quill below, smooth, solid ; 1. 6-12 

 by to— j in., linear, acuminate, rigid, flat, glabrous except at 

 the base, margins and midrib beneath scabrid, base narrowed, 

 midrib and 2-3 pairs of veins very prominent beneath, sheaths 

 tight, glabrous, mouth not auricled, ligule very short, 

 membranous, toothed ; spikes 4-8 in., shortly exserted from 

 the , uppermost sheaths, erect, internodes about \ in. long, 

 contracted in the middle, ribs green ; glume I nearly as long 

 as the internodes, tip sometimes narrowly margined, base 

 truncate, veins 5-7, very obscure, ending in little pits above 

 the base; anth. yV in. ; grain -fV in. 



Hotter parts of the Island. 



Throughout India, Afghanistan, Burma, China. 



33. ISCHSKUOI, L. 

 Annual or perennial grasses ; infl. of solitary digitate or 

 fascicled articulate spikes, internodes of rhachis and pedicels 

 of upper spikelets trigonous, ventrally hollowed ; spikelets 

 binate, a sessile and pedicelled, each often 2-fld., a male and 

 a fern, or bisexual, deciduous with the internode, pedicelled 

 spikelet usually differing in size or shape from the sessile, but 

 sometimes altogether similar to it ; sessile spikelet, glumes 4, 

 I and II subequal in length, coriaceous or chartaceous, awnless 

 or II awned, I ovoid-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, conveXj 

 on sides smooth, nodose below the middle, above it flatter, 

 veined, and more or less winged on each side, sides broadly 

 or narrowly incurved, II lanceolate, acuminate, concave, III 

 nearly as long as I, usually membranous, acute or acuminate, 

 paleate, triandrous, rarely empty, palea narrower, lanceolate, 

 acuminate, 2-veined, usually with an opaque rigid centre and 

 broad inflexed hyaline flaps, IV hyaline, bisexual or fern., 

 deeply 2-cleft, 3-veined, awned, awn geniculately inserted dor- 



