292 Graminecs. [Eragrostis. 



Trop. and S. Africa. 



The synonymy of this plant is very complicated. I have adopted 

 Dr. Stapf's determination of the name it should bear, arrived at after a 

 searching investigation of the descriptions of the older authors. The 

 type of the Linnasan Poa tetiella is in Plukenet's Herbarium (Almagest, 

 176, t. 300, f. 2), of which Dr. Stapf and I have examined the specimens 

 in the British Museum. It is not the commonest Ceylon form. The 

 full synonymy of the species (with upwards of 20 names) is given in the 

 Flora of British India. 



2. B. interrupta, Beauv. Agrost. 71 (1812). 



E. nutans, Nees ex Steud. Syn. Gram.; Thw. Enum. 373. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 316. Kunth, Revis. Gram. ii. t. 188 (Poa). 



Perennial ; stems tall, up to 3 ft. high, stout, as thick as a 

 small goose-quill, or slender; 1. up to 10 by J in. in tall 

 specimens, very narrow in shorter, flat, sheaths coriaceous, not 

 auricled, ligule a fringe of short hairs; panicle very various, 

 up to 12 in. long, branches few or many, alt. or subwhorled, 

 suberect, long or short, rhachis smooth or scaberulous ; 

 spikelets minute, erect, <ro- T V in., 3-13-fld., green or colourless, 

 rachilla articulate between the fig. glumes, glabrous, dis- 

 articulating from above downward ; glumes hyaline, keels 

 smooth, I and II subequal, ovate-oblong, obtuse, 1 -veined, 

 flg. glume -jW-ts m -> ovate-oblong, obtuse or tip rounded, 

 mid- vein very slender, lateral submarginal, palea linear-oblong, 

 keels smooth or minutely scaberulous ; stam. 2, anth. small, 

 linear-oblong ; grain very minute, obovoid, yellow- or red- 

 brown, shining. 



Var. diplachnoides, Stapf in Fl. B. Ind. iii. 316. 



Stem tall, stout, branched; panicle effuse or contracted, branches 

 solitary, opposite or 3-nate, 2-5 in. long, ultimate not divaricate ; spikelets 

 6-12-fld. • fig. glumes rarely ^ in. E. diplachnoides, Steud. Syn. Gram. 

 268. C.P. 3259>933 (in part). 



Var. Xcenig-ii, Stapf, 1. c. 



Stem tall, stout or slender; panicle long, narrow, with short dense 

 pseudo- whorls ; spikelets shortly pedicelled, 6- or more-fid. E. Kamigii, 

 Link, Hort. Berol. ii. 294 in syn. 



Var. tenuissima, Stapj, 1. c. E. tenuissima, Schrad. ex Nees, Fl. 

 Afr. Aust. 4°9> 4 IQ - 



Stem 3-8 in., very slender; 1. almost filiform, convolute ; panicle strict, 

 erect of 6-10 very dense fascicles of branches \-\ in. long placed at the 

 subequal intervals on a slender rhachis ; spikelets densely crowded, about 

 6-fld., glume I veinless. 



Hot drier parts of the Island; common. Var. Kcenigii, N. Pullam. 

 Var. diplachnoides Tissa-maha-rama Tank, Abukala Korale, Konegalla, 

 near Mootilinsa (?) (Gardner). Var. temeissima, Punakari, Jaffna district 

 (Trimen). . . 



Trop. and subtrop. Asia and Africa. 



The three varieties described above pass directly into one 



