£ragrostis.] GraminecB. 289 



swan's quill without the sheath, internodes long, shining, 

 slightly compressed, nearly solid ; 1. 4-6 ft. by §-§ in., lower 

 third narrowed into a complicate petiole, upper flat, glaucous 

 beneath, narrowed into a filiform tip, midrib stout below, 

 evanescent above the middle, margins faintly scaberulous 

 towards the tip, sheaths very long, compressed, polished, 

 mouth not auricled, ligule o; panicle 1-2 ft. by i|-2|- in. 

 broad, rhachis quite smooth, branches 1-1J in. long in 

 approximate fascicles or whorls, filiform, bearing spikelets to 

 the base; spikelets up to \ in. long, 8-20-fld., ovate or oblong, 

 shining, pedicels scabrid, base acute at the insertion, rhachilla 

 glabrous; limb of glumes I and II shorter than their awns, 

 fig. glumes about \ in., many neuter or with imperfect fL, 

 lateral veins slender, median very stout. 



Kottiar, near Trincomalie, in brackish water (Trimen). Spikes golden 

 brown. 



Sunderbunds of Bengal, Tenasserim, Penang. 



The spikelets are longer and with more numerous flowers in the 

 Penang and Ceylon specimens than in the Bengal, and are hence refer- 

 able to var. longisfiicula, H. f. Fl. B. Ind. vii. 328. 



67. BRAGROSTIS, Host. 

 Annual or perennial, usually slender, glabrous grasses ; 

 stem erect or ascending ; 1. narrow ; spikelets many-fid. in 

 open or contracted panicles, rarely spicate on a simple 

 terminal rhachis, not articulate at the base, strongly laterally 

 compressed, ovate oblong or linear, rhachilla produced and 

 articulate or not between the glumes, but not beyond the 

 terminal one; glumes many, closely distichously imbricate, 

 thin, dorsally rounded or keeled, awn o, I and II much 

 shorter than the spikelet, empty, I rarely 3-veined, separately 

 deciduous, fig. glumes 3-veined, lateral veins not reaching 

 the mid-vein, callus o, palea deciduous with the glume or 

 persistent on the rachilla, keels smooth, scabrid or ciliate; 

 lodicules 2, very minute or o; stam. 1-3, anth. short or long ; 

 styles free, stigmas penicillate, laterally exserted ; grain very 

 minute, free in the glume and palea. — Sp. about 100; 31 in 

 FL B. Ind. 



The Indian species of Eragrostis were worked up by Dr. Stapf for 

 the Flora of British India. The synonymy of most of them is extremely 

 intricate, and very difficult, often impossible, to determine satisfactorily. 

 In revising the Ceylon species with the Peradeniya Herbarium, I have 

 adopted a few rectifications in the nomenclature adopted in that Flora, 

 as pointed out to me by Dr. Stapf, who has been so good as to revise 

 PART v. U 



