252 Gra minece. \_AHstida. 



Northern, Eastern, and Western Provinces. Trincomalie, Batal Oya, 

 Bet Chilan, Punakari, Jaffna District, &c. 



Upper Gangetic Plain and southward, Mauritius (introd.). 



Hackel gives good reasons for not adopting Andersson's name of /. 

 prostratum for this species, which was erroneously supposed to be the 

 Andropogon prostratus of Linnaeus. 



43. ARZSTIDA, Linn. 

 Annual or perennial, tufted grasses; 1. fiat or convolute; 

 spikelets panicled, i-fld., not articulate on their pedicels,, 

 laterally compressed, rhachilla not produced beyond the fig. 

 glume; glumes 3, I and II long very narrow, 1 -veined, keeled, 

 persistent, awn terminal or o, III very narrow, cylindric,. 

 coriaceous, convolute, acuminate, 3-veined, terminated by 3 

 very long capillary awns, callus long, articulate at the base, 

 palea minute, convolute round the ov. and grain, keels o;. 

 lodicules 2, long, narrow, hyaline; stam. 3, anth. long, narrow; 

 styles free, short stigmas penicillate, laterally exserted ; grain 

 long, narrow, cylindric, free in the convolute glume. — Sp. 

 reputed about 100; 1 1 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Empty glumes not awned 1. A. Adscensionis. 



Empty glumes awned 2. A. setacea. 



1. A. Adscensionis,* Linn. Sp. PI. 82 (1753) {excl. syn. Sloane). 

 A. depressa, Retz. ; Thw. Enum. 370. C. P. 3684. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 225. Jacq. Eclog. Gram. vii. t. 6 (A. divaricatd). Cav» 

 Ic. t. 589 (A. elatior). Desf. Fl. Atlant. t. 21, f. 2 (A. ccerulescens). 



Annual or perennial; stem 1-2 ft., densely tufted, very 

 slender, erect or ascending, simple or branched, branches erect, 

 smooth; 1. 3-12 in., convolute, filiform, quite smooth, sheath 

 smooth, auricles rounded, ligule of very fine short hairs; 

 panicle 3-12 in., contracted, subsecund, rhachis filiform, quite 

 smooth, branches short and short pedicels capillary; spikelets 

 erect; glume I \ in., oblong-lanceolate, acute, membranous, 

 keel obscurely scaberulous, II \ in., very narrow, tip 2-toothed 

 and apiculate, margins hyaline, keel smooth, fl. glume as long 

 as II, 3-veined, smooth, awns not articulate on the glume, 

 callus elongate, villous, palea minute, oblong, hyaline, retuse; 

 lodicules very minute, lanceolate. 



Trincomalie (Glenie), N. and W. coasts, Kalpitiya and Jaffna (Trimen). 

 Moist warm countries. 



* Name from the Island of Ascension in the S. Atlantic Ocean, where 

 it was collected by Osbeck in 1752. 



