Anthistiria.] Graminece. 24.9 



Warm regions of the old world. 



Often 6-8 ft. high on banks of streams and near water (Ferguson). 



There are two forms of this species in Herb. Peraden. under the same 

 number : one smaller, stem more slender, with few nodes, 1. chiefly basal 

 with equitant sheaths ; the other with many internodes, the lower of 

 which as stout as a small goose-quill. 



There occur in this and other species copious membranous ovate- 

 lanceolate acuminate scales amongst the bracts, which represent in> 

 perfect male spikelets. 



2. A. cymbaria, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 6 (1814). Kara wata 

 maana, S. 



Thw. Enum. 436 and 366. A. ciliata, Retz. C. P. 3257, 3803. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 215. 



Perennial; stems 3-8 ft., stout, erect, branched, smooth, 

 polished, clothed at the base with broad strongly compressed 

 equitant 1. -sheaths, together i\-2 in. across, internodes long, 

 nodes glabrous or puberulous; 1. 2-4 ft. by j--{ in., tip 

 filiform, rigidly coriaceous, scaberulous above and on the 

 margins, upper convolute, filiform, sheaths quite smooth, 

 lower I in. broad at the base, strongly compressed, keels 

 smooth, upper subterete, mouth not auricled, sides bearded 

 with long soft hairs, ligule a large stiff erose membrane; 

 panicle 1-2 ft., supra-decompound, branches loaded with 

 small shortly peduncled oblong fascicles, |-f in. long, of 

 nearly glabrous bracts and spikes; bracts all short and 

 narrow, hardly exceeding the spikes; involucrant spikelets 

 ■J- 1 in., contiguous in superposed pairs, glabrous; bisexual 

 spikelets 1 or 2, subsessile, callus short, bearded with white 

 hairs ; glume I ^ in., narrow, dorsally convex, not channelled, 

 smooth, polished, dark brown, awn about \ in., slender, 

 smooth. 



Patanas of Uva and the Central Provinces, &c, very abundant. 



Also in the Western Ghats and Nilgiri hills. 



A. ciliata, Thw. C. P. 3257, is in Fl. B. Ind. referred to as A. imberbis, 

 var. vulgafis, but the solitary Peradeniya specimen is certainly a young 

 state of A. cymbaria. 



Ferguson (Grasses Indig. to Ceylon, 27) says of C. P. 3257, that it is 

 especially abundant in the patanas of Dambulla, in many of which it is 

 the principal grass, and is often cut and dried for fodder for cattle, and 

 that it is perhaps in this respect the best substitute for hay of all the 

 grasses found in Ceylon. Also that several years ago (dating from 1886) 

 large quantities used to come from Bombay with batches of horses for 

 sale. 



3. A. tremula, Nees ex Steud. Syn. Gram. 401 (1854). Finibaru- 

 tana, S. 



Thw. Enum. 366. Themeda tremula, Hack. Monogr. Androp. 667. 

 Anthoxatithum avenaceum, Retz. (?); Moon, Cat. 4. C. P. 961. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 211. 



Annual or perennial ; stems 2-6 ft., stout or slender, erect 



