250 Graminece. {Awthistiria. 



or ascending from a creeping rootstock, simple or branching, 

 smooth, polished, brown ; 1. 6-24 in. by ^-f in., finely acuminate, 

 tips setaceous, scaberulous, sheaths slightly compressed, 

 smooth, mouth not auricled, ligule a very narrow ciliolate 

 membrane; panicle elongate, 1-2 ft., racemiform, fascicles of 

 spikes and bracts rather distant on capillary flexuous peduncles 

 ^-3 in. long, subflabelliform or subglobose, \-\\ in. broad, 

 sometimes reduced to a few bracts and spikelets, outer bracts 

 much longer than the fascicles, \-\\ in. long, more or less 

 hairy, hairs simple or tubercle-based, proper bracts glabrous 

 or softly hairy, margins membranous; involucrant spikelets in 

 contiguous superposed pairs, about \ in. long, rhachis of spike 

 produced beyond them ; glume I linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 covered with long often tubercule-based bristles, many-veined, 

 male or empty, II oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, i-veined, 

 ciliate above the middle, margins inflexed, III as long, very 

 narrowly linear, hyaline, 1 -veined, glabrous; lodicules cuneate; 

 anth. 'about yg- in. long; bisexual spikelets 2, sessile, linear- 

 oblong, obtuse, callus small with a short coloured beard, 

 glume I scabrid, deeply channelled dorsally, tip hispid, awn 

 \-\ in. ; pedicelled spikelets like the involucrant but nearly 

 glabrous, glumes 3, I veinless winged on one margin, II and 

 III as in the involucrant spikelets. 



An examination of the Peradeniya Herbarium specimens of this 

 species, together with those in Herb. Kew. shows that there are three 

 varieties of it in Ceylon. 



Var. tremula proper. 



Stems 1-3 ft., rarely stouter than a crow-quill ; 1. 6-12 in.; 

 panicle 1-2 ft. subsimple, fascicles of spikelets subracemi- 

 form, \-\ in. broad, greenish when dry, on flexuous capillary 

 ped., outer bracts \-\ in., proper bracts not twice as long as 

 the spikes, awn \- f in. long. 



Var. Thwaitesii, A. Thwaitesii, Hook. f. Fl. B. Ind. vii. 215. 

 Stem tail, probably up to 6 ft., very stout, nodes glaucous ; 

 1. 1J-2 ft., fascicles of spikes greenish, 1— 1| in. broad, outer 

 bracts 1-2^ in. much longer than the fascicles, awn 1 in. long. 



Var. brunnea, Hook.f. 



Stem slender 3-4 ft.; 1. 6-10 in. ; panicle 12-18 in. long, 

 narrow subracemiform ; fascicles of spikes crowded, sub- 

 globose, |-| in. diam., hirsute with tubercle-based hairs, pale 

 brown, ped. long flexuous outer bracts as long or rather 

 longer than the fascicles, awn f-i in. long. 



Abundant throughout the Island. Var. brunnea, near Moragala 

 (Trimen), Madulsema (Pearson). 



India, from the Central Provinces southwards. 



