260 Graminecz. \sporobolus. 



47. SPOROEOLUS. Br. 

 Perennial, rarely annual, glabrous grasses, erect or pro- 

 strate and creeping; 1. narrow, flat or convolute; spikelets 

 i-fld., small or minute, in effuse or contracted panicles, 

 articulate on their pedicels, rhachilla not produced beyond 

 the palea ; glumes 3, usually membranous, 1 -veined or vein- 

 less, I and II empty, unequal, separately caducous, III not 

 articulate at the base, ovate or oblong, obtuse or acute, callus 

 very short, glabrous, palea as long as the glume and of the 

 same texture, broadly oblong, often dorsally narrowly inflexed 

 along the median line, presenting a vein-like ridge ventrally, 

 along which the palea splits into halves, veins o or very 

 obscure, close together, one on each side of the ventral ridge ; 

 lodicules very minute oro; stam. 1-3, anth. short or long; 

 styles 2, very short, free, stigmas short, hairs simple; grain 

 oblong, obovoid or pyriform, free within the glume and 

 palea, pericarp hyaline, loose ; embryo large. — Sp. about 80 ; 

 14 in Fl. B. I nd. 



Glumes I and II shorter than III. 

 Panicle very narrow, branches short. 



Spikelets ^5-^5 m - l° n § • • ■ . 1. S. diander. 

 Spikelets xj-tV ™- lon §" • • • . 2. S. INDICUS. 

 Panicle broad, branches very long . . 3. S. Wallichii. 

 Glume I as long as III or nearly so .4. S. virginictjs. 



Glume I shorter than II and III, II nearly 

 or quite as long as III. 

 Panicle contracted. 



Glume I lanceolate, acuminate, i-veined 5. S. tremulus. 

 Glume I veinless, obtuse . . . 6. S. orientalis. 

 Panicle effuse 7. S. coromandelianus. 



1. S. diander, Beauv. Agrost. 25 (1812). 

 Thw. Enum. 370. Moon, Cat. 8. C. P. 3771. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 247. Jacq. Eclog. Gram. t. 28. 



Annual or perennial; stems tufted, 1-3 ft. high, slender, 

 quite smooth, internodes long; 1. 6-12 in., very narrow, tips 

 filiform, flat or convolute, quite smooth, veins strong, sheaths 

 smooth, strongly ribbed, lower short, upper very long, auricles 

 small, not bearded, ligule a ridge of minute hairs; panicle up 

 to 10 in. long by 2 broad, erect, narrowly pyramidal, rhachis 

 slender, quite smooth, branches alt, erecto-patent or spreading, 

 capillary, lowest up to 3 in. long, naked at the base, bearing 

 above very short racemules of very minute spikelets £t~ts m « 

 long, on very short pedicels; glumes 3, I and II hyaline, tips 

 erose, I very short, broadly oblong, veinless, II about half as 



