Oropetium.] Graminece. 271 



alternating cavities of the rhachis of an inarticulate tetragonal! 



spike, sessile, not articulate on the rhachis, rhachilla articulate 



at the base, not produced beyond the fig. glume; glumes 3, 



I very minute, orbicular, hyaline, inserted at the base of the 



cavity of the spike, its sides partly embracing the base of II, 



which is much longer than the fig. glume, erect, herbaceous, 



linear, persistent (having the insertion and appearance of the 



lowest or outermost glume); fig. glume concealed by glume 



II, which closes the cavity in which the fig. glume is immersed, 



sessile, oval, hyaline, 1 -veined, tip scaberulous, callus very 



short, bearded with long silky hairs, palea as long as the 



glume, keels close together, slender, smooth; lodicules very 



minute, obliquely cuneiform ; stam. 3, anth. oblong ; styles 



short, bases distant, stigmas plumose, laterally exserted ; 



grain obovoid, terete, smooth, brown, free in the glume, tip 



bimucronate, embryo subbasal, small. — Monotypic. 



The relative insertions and positions of glumes I and II are as 

 explained under Lefiturus, but in Oropetium the sides of I embrace the 

 sides of the base of II. I follow Dr. Stapf (in Fl. Capens.) in referring 

 the genus to Chlorides rather than to Hordeacece, where all other 

 authors have placed it. 



O. Thomaeum,* Trim. Fund. Agrost. 98 (1820). 



Thw. Enum. 363. Rottboellia Thotncea, Keen.; Moon, Cat. 9. C. P. 

 872. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 366. Trin. 1. c. t. 3. Roxb. Cor. PI. ii. t. 133 {Rott- 

 boellia). 



Whole plant 2-3 in. high, forming hard tufts with capillary 

 root-fibres ; 1. shorter or longer than the stem, erect or curved, 

 filiform, acute, coriaceous, striate, sparsely ciliate with long 

 hairs, sheath compressed, membranous, auricles small, bearded 

 with long hairs, ligule an erect rather long lacerate mem- 

 brane; spikes longer or shorter than the 1., 1-1^ in. long, 

 erect, straight or slightly curved, about -^ in. diam., internodes 

 about iV in. long; glume II longer than the internode, linear, 

 obtuse, recurved. 



Northern, N. Central, and Uva Provinces. Mannar, Anuradhapura, 

 Bintenna tank (Gardner). On old walls (Ferguson). 



Plains of India, Burma. 



Moon gives Colombo as a habitat for this plant, as to which Ferguson, 

 remarks, ' I think he must have confounded it with Stenotaphrum or 

 some other plant. 1 



* The name derived from that of the town, St. Thome (St. Thomas 

 Mount), near Madras, where the plant was first found. 



