sporobolus^ Graminece. 263 



5. S. tremulus, Kunth, Revis. Gram. i. 67 (1835). 



5. orientalis, Trim. Cat. Ceyl. PL 108 (non Kunth). 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 250. 



Perennial, glaucous, stoloniferous; stems 2-6 in. long, 

 very rigid, forming matted patches on a woody knotted root- 

 stock, or loosely tufted, or more slender and widely spreading 

 from fibrous roots, stolons up to 18 in. long, filiform, distantly 

 leafy, sending up short branches; 1. \~i\ in., distichous, subu- 

 late, or acicular, crowded on the shorter branches, spreading 

 and recurved, convolute, rarely flat, narrowed from the base 

 to the acute tip, sheaths very short, equitant on the shorter 

 branches, smooth, glabrous, auricles obtuse, ciliate, ligule of 

 short fine hairs; panicle 1-2 in., very narrow, subspiciform, 

 ped. very slender, smooth, branches very short, erect, densely 

 panicled; spikelets yg- in. long, shortly pedicelled, pale green 

 or white; glumes I and II ovate- lanceolate, acuminate, 

 i-veined, I about one third shorter than III, II as long as III, 

 which is ovate, subacute, palea plicate along the median 

 line; stam. 3, anth. \ shorter than the palea; grain broadly 

 oblong, laterally compressed, rounded at both ends, tipped 

 by the globose remains of the pericarp, quite smooth, yellow- 

 brown. 



Near the sea; Northern, Central, and Southern Provinces, Kirinde, 

 Kalpitya, Jaffna, and Manar districts (Trimen). 



Plains of India, Pegu, Tonkin, Cambodia. 



6. S. orientalis, Kunth, Enum. PL i. 211 (1833). 

 S. humifusus, Trim. Cat. Ceyl. PI. 108 (non Kunth). 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 251. 



Very variable in habit, stoloniferous; stolons stout or 

 slender, rooting at the nodes, and forming hard dense tufts 

 with short convolute leaves, and slender geniculately ascending 

 stems 4-8 in. high, or tall erect stems up to 18 in. high with 

 very long flexuous convolute 1. up to 14 in. long, root-fibres 

 stout or slender, sometimes cylindric and tomentose with root- 

 hairs; 1. on the short stems 1-3 in. long, tapering from the 

 base to the acute tip, on the tall stems, flat, \ in. broad, or 

 convolute, coriaceous, smooth, or margins scaberulous, sheaths 

 short or long,mouth hardly auricled, ligule a delicate membrane, 

 ciliate with long hairs; spikelets T V in. long; glume I one- 

 fourth to one-third of III, ovate, obtuse, hyaline, veinless; II 

 and III firmer in texture, nearly equal in length, 1 -veined, II 

 ovate -lanceolate, obtuse, III ovate-oblong, obtuse, palea, 

 inflexed along the median line; stam. 3, anth. linear, half as 

 long as the palea ; grain broadly oblong, laterally compressed, 

 tipped with the globose remains of the pericarp, quite smooth, 

 yellow-brown. > 



