258 Graminece. [Spharocaryum. 



rounded, sheaths glabrous, except at the sides and sometimes 

 at the back of the mouth, ligule a very short, scarious, 

 toothed membrane; panicle 6-12 in., effuse, rhachis smooth, 

 branches numerous, in remote fascicles, 3-4 in. long, capillary, 

 subsimple, erecto-patent ; spikelets T ^ in., mostly solitary, 

 distant, sessile, or upper of each pair usually shortly pedi- 

 celled, narrowly oblong, base naked ; glumes I and II equal, 

 oblong-ovate, acute, membranous, veins quite smooth, III 

 shortly stipitate, linear-oblong, apiculate, membranous, awn- 

 less, palea acute; lodicules cuneate. 



Kalutara, Culloden Estate (Ferguson). Spikelets green. 



There is only a single specimen of this very distinct species in the 

 Peradeniya Herbarium. It differs from G. micrantha in the ligule and 

 shortly pedicelled spikelets. 



45. SPHHSROCARYUM, Nees. 

 A dwarf annual; stem creeping and ascending, leafy 

 throughout, rooting at the lower nodes; 1. small, broadly 

 ovate-cordate, acuminate, amplexicaul, coriaceous, sheaths 

 shorter than the internodes, hispid; spikelets very minute,, 

 i-fld., ellipsoid, pedicelled on the close-set capillary branches 

 of an ovoid, terminal, subsessile panicle, articulate on the 

 pedicels, rhachilla o; glumes 3, membranous, cymbiform, I 

 and II empty, obscurely i-veined, II i-veined, III flg., 

 i-veined; palea as long as its glume, 2-veined; lodicules 2, 

 microscopic; stam. 3, anth. linear; ov. narrow, styles short, 

 free, stigmas short; grain loose in the glumes, linear-oblong.. 

 — Monotypic. 



S. eleg-ans, Nees ex Steud. Nom. ed. 2, ii. 620 (1841). 



Grayia elegans, Nees in Wight, Cat. n. 2033. G. zeylanica, Arn. ex 

 Steud. Nom. ed. 2, i. 705. Isachne pulchella, Roth.; Thw. Enum. 362. 

 Panicum elegans, Wight and Arn. ex Steud. 1. c. ii. 256. Andropogon 

 Grayia, Steud. 1. c. i. 91. C. P. 879. 



pi. B. Ind. vii. 246. 



Stem 6-12 in., as thick as a sparrow's quill, rarely 

 branched, glabrous except at the setose nodes; 1. all nearly 

 alike in size and form, spreading or reflexed, \-\ in. long, 

 above veinless, closely striate, beneath with 2-3 pairs of very 

 slender veins, margins ciliated below the middle with long 

 rigid tubercle-based bristles; sheaths very short, hispidly 

 bristly, ligule a brush of white hairs; panicle 1-2 in. long, 

 quite smooth, branches alt. and fascicled, lower |-| in. long, 

 erecto-patent; spikelets alt. on the branches, -£q—£q in. long, 

 much shorter than their pedicels ; glumes (in Ceylon 



