Anthistiria.] Graminece. 247 



grass in the Circular walk " (of the Bot. Gard. ?), several plants of it 

 flowered in Jan. 1878, from which I secured good specimens.' 



40. PSEUSANTKISTIRIA, Hook.f. 

 Annual grasses, with the habit and infl. of Anthistiria, but 

 wanting the involucrate spikelets of that genus ; spike 

 usually consisting of a sessile bisexual spikelet, with a solitary 

 pedicelled male, terminated by a second sessile bisexual with 

 two male pedicelled spikelets. — Sp. 4 ; all in Fl. B. Ind. 



P. umbellata, Hook.f. Fl. B. hid. 220 (1896). 



Andropogon umbellatus, Hack. Monogr. Androp. 401. Anthistiria 

 heteroclita^Thw. Enum. 366, non Roxb. C. P. 963. 



Fl. B. Ind. 1. c. 



Perennial ; stems densely tufted, filiform, flaccid, leafy, 

 1-2 ft. high, ascending from an extensively creeping rootstock 

 with filiform root-fibres ; 1. |-2 in. long, oblong-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, thin, scaberulous on both surfaces and margin,- 

 base rounded or cuneate, sometimes petiolulate, veins very 

 slender, sheaths much shorter than the internodes, auricles 

 small, margins membranous, ciliate, ligule a narrow ciliate 

 membrane ; fascicles of few spikelets, on axillary flexuous 

 capillary peduncles \-\ in. long, rarely longer, bracts |-i in. 

 long, narrowly lanceolate, finely acuminate, sparsely setose, 

 proper bracts hardly longer than the spikes, about \ in. long ; 

 bisexual spikelet sessile, ^ in. long, callus very short ; 

 bearded ; glume I ovate or linear-oblong, truncate, charta- 

 ceous, 7-veined, margins incurved below the middle, II 

 lanceolate, acuminate, 3-veined, membranous, glabrous, III 

 very small, quadrate, IV the very narrow hyaline base of the 

 capillary awn, which is |-f in. long, geniculate above the 

 middle; lodicules cuneate; anth. linear; styles and stigmas 

 short; male spikelets \ in. long, on ciliate pedicels, lanceolate, 

 acuminate; glume I thin, about 9- veined, margins narrowly 

 incurved, scaberulous above the middle, II lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, 3-veined, glabrous, III very small, oblong. 



Common in the more elevated parts of the I sland. Patanas of Dambulla 

 and Hantane districts, forming the entire covering of open ground. 

 Also in the Western Ghats. 

 An excellent fodder, green or dry (Ferguson). 



41. ANTHISTIRIA, L. 

 Annual or perennial grasses ; 1. long, narrow; infl. elongate, 

 leafy, formed of racemes or panicles of fascicles of very short 

 spikes in the axils of spathiform bracts, rhachis of spike 

 articulate above the four lower spikelets; spikelets 7-9, 

 dimorphic, 4 whorled or subwhorled, male or neuter, forming 



