284 GraminecE. \Gratilea. 



leafy, internodes rather soft; 1. 6-18 by \-\ in., narrowly 

 linear, finely acuminate, flat or convolute, rather coriaceous, 

 surfaces and margins nearly smooth, base not contracted, 

 sheaths long, smooth, lower often broad, open, spathiform, 

 mouth hardly auricled, ligule a hyaline membrane fringed 

 with long hairs; panicle 6-18 in., rather contracted, rhachis 

 flexuous, scaberulous; spikes 2-5 in., capillary, rather crowded, 

 flexuous ; spikelets T V~I" m - (if smaller, imperfect), 4-8-fld., 

 shortly pedicelled, rhachilla produced between the fig. glumes; 

 glumes I and II oblong, obtuse or apiculate, I much the 

 smallest, fig. glumes ovate-oblong, obtuse, apiculate, lateral 

 veins submarginal, and keels of broadly oblong palea 

 silkily ciliate ; anth. very small ; grain oblong, concavo- 

 convex or obtusely trigonous, ventral face concave, rugulose, 

 red-brown. 



Atakalam Korale and Doombera (Thwaites), Uma-oya (Trimen). 



Tropical Asia, Australia. 



62. 6RACILEA, Keen. 

 Small, tufted grasses; 1. short; spikelets 2-fld., collected in 

 turbinate fascicles, which are secund sessile and articulate on 

 a slender spike, not articulate at the base, callus o, rhachilla 

 produced far beyond the upper glume, filiform, scaberulous; 

 glumes 4, I and II much the longest, empty, elongate-subulate, 

 rigid, collateral at the base and laterally attached to the base 

 of the spikelet, persistent, III bisexual, chartaceous, ovate- 

 oblong, cymbiform, shortly awned, 3-veined, palea as long as 

 the glume, bicuspidate, keels scaberulous ; lodicules minute, 

 cuneiform, truncate, anth. large, IV like III but much 

 smaller, bicuspidate, male, anth. small ; styles slender, free at 

 the base, stigmas slender, laterally exserted, hairs short, 

 simple; grain linear-oblong, free within the glumes. — Sp. 2; 

 both in Fl. B. Ind. 



A very curious genus of two species, the other a native of the Panjab, 

 &c. 



G. nutans, Keen, in Ges. Naturf. Fr. Neue Schrift. iv. 218 (1803). 

 Melanocenchris Rothiana, Nees. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 283. Jaub. and Sp. 111. PI. Orient, iv. t. 326 {Mel. 

 Perrottetii). 



Perennial ; stem stout below, shortly creeping, with stout 

 fibrous roots, then ascending, 4-12 in. long, stout and leafy 

 below, very slender and naked above; 1. \-\ by \-\ in., 

 narrowed from the rounded base to the obtuse tip, coriaceous, 

 striate, margins ciliate below the middle with tubercle-based 



