Ischcemum.] Grammece. 219 



reduced to one or rarely 4 glumes, then awned and male, 

 pedicel slender, sometimes nearly as long as the sessile 

 spikelet. 



Central Province, Peradeniya, Hantane, between Eratne and Palaba- 

 dulla, abundant (Trimen). 



Bengal, Central India, Burma, Malaya. 



Dr. Trimen's specimens have much larger and longer-petioled 1. than 

 any other Ceylon or Indian forms known to me. Awn short in Ceylon 

 specimens. I find the foliage of this species to be too variable to afford 

 characters for varieties. Glume I is almost or quite glabrous and shining. 



Affects damp and shady places from the coast up to the Kandyan 

 country, and is very seldom found in flower. It is an excellent and 

 abundant fodder (Ferguson). 



9. I. laxum, Br. Prod. 205 (18 10). 



Trim. Cat. Ceyl. PI. 107. /. nervosum, Thw. Enum. 365. C. P. 3138. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 136. 



Perennial ; stem 2-3 ft., tufted on a short rootstock, simple, 

 slender, erect, glabrous, leafy, nodes glabrous; 1. 6-12, by 

 Yo— ^ in., erect, linear, narrowed to long capillary tips, flat, 

 smooth, striate, glaucous beneath, margins minutely scaberu- 

 lous, base not contracted, midrib very slender, sheaths shorter 

 than the internodes, glabrous or sparsely hairy, mouth not 

 auricled, ligule of silky hairs; spike solitary, 2-3 in., suberect, 

 fragile, internodes and pedicels of upper spikelets about half 

 as long as the spikelets, compressed, sides silkily ciliate with 

 long hairs ; sessile spikelet \ in., callus short, obtuse, shortly 

 bearded ; glume I green, thin, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 tip 2-toothed, teeth ending in short capillary ciliate flaccid 

 awns, margins inflexed, keeled, keek minutely scaberulous 

 and ciliate, veins 6, median o, 2 marginal, 4 dorsal in pairs 

 diverging from the base and converging and anastomosing in 

 the upper third of the glume, marginal terminating in the 

 awns of the apical teeth, II concave, membranous, ovate- 

 lanceolate, acuminate, terminating in a slender scabrid awn 

 longer than the glume, margins ciliate, keel rounded with a 

 narrow ciliate dorsal wing running from the entire or 2-toothed 

 tip on to the awn, veins 3, very slender, III lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, hyaline, veinless, ciliate with long recurved hairs, paleate, 

 triandrous, palea oblong, obtuse, ciliate, IV deeply cleft into 

 lanceolate long-ciliate lobes, 3-veined below, paleate, fern., 

 awn up to 1^ in., palea linear-oblong ; lodicules obliquely 1 

 cuneate ; anth. \ in.; styles short, stigmas rather long; pedi- 

 celled spikelet as long as the sessile; glume I chartaceous, 

 red-brown, lanceolate, acuminate, with the tip toothed and 

 awned as in the sessile spikelet, veins 7, strong, one median, 

 three submarginal on each side, margin narrowly inflexed, 



