212 Grctminece. \Ischcemum* 



short, broad ; sessile spikelet, glume 1 ovate- or linear-oblong, 

 cartilaginous or coriaceous below the middle, with 2-4 

 marginal nodules on each side transversely connected by 

 shallow ridges, above the middle thinner with green anasto- 

 mosing veins and usually unequal narrow ciliolate wings,, 

 towards the obtuse or 2-toothed tip, margins narrowly 

 incurved, ciliolate, II lanceolate, acuminate, chartaceous, sub- 

 scaberulous, I-veined, keel rounded smooth, III and IV 

 and paleas eciliate, sometimes punctulate, III ovate- 

 lanceolate, acuminate, 1 -veined, membranous, male or bi- 

 sexual, palea oblong, rather thicker, IV. oblong, fern., cleft to 

 the middle or lower into lanceolate acuminate lobes, 3-veined 

 below, awn ^-f in., geniculately inserted at the sinus, palea 

 linear-oblong; pedicelled spikelet broader than the sessile,, 

 inarticulate on the very short thick amorphous pedicel; 

 glume I coriaceous, flattened, broadly winged, wing semi- 

 circular, acinaciform or dimidiate-ovate, margins ciliolate, 

 glumes II and III and paleas as in the sessile spikelet, II 

 male or bisexual, III fern., IV linear-oblong, obtuse or 

 minutely 2-lobed with a mucro; grain \-\ in., ellipsoid- 

 oblong, compressed. 



Var. fallax, Hack. Monogr. Androfi. 204. Fl. B. Ind. 1. c. C. P.. 

 700, 994. 



Stem more slender, prostrate below and ascending, 1. 

 smaller, narrower, sometimes long-petioled, ligule shorter, 

 ciliate, spikes more slender, sparsely hairy. 



Very common in the Island (Ferguson). Var. fallax, Bintenna and 

 Peradeniya. 



Throughout the plains and lower hills of India, Malaya, China. 



I cannot distinguish the vars. barbatum and imberbe in the Peradenya 

 Herbarium, where specimens from the same locality and on the same 

 sheet present spikelets varying from almost glabrous to densely villous, 

 with narrow and broad glumes, especially variable as to glume I of 

 pedicelled spikelet. The number and prominences of nodes on the 

 sides of glume I of the sessile spikelets are unstable characters, as are 

 the length and breadth of the leaves and of the ligule, Var. fallax looks 

 very different from the common large form of aristaium, but I find no 

 characters for it other than those given above. Hackel has a var* 

 datum, with hirsute sheaths, from Silhet and Ceylon, of which I have 

 seen no Ceylon specimen. 



2. I. rug-osum, Salisb. Ic. Stirfi. Rar. 1 (1791). 



Thw. Enum. 364. C. P. 870. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 127. Salisb. 1. c. t. 1. Gaertn. f. Fruct. Suppl. t. 181. 



Annual ; stem 1-2 ft., rather stout, tufted, erect or 

 ascending, leafy, compressed, slightly thickened beneath the 

 infl., nodes glabrous or bearded ; 1. 4-6 by \-\ in., linear- 

 lanceolate, acuminate, flat, flaccid, smooth, glabrous or 



