Eragrostis.] Graminece. 293 



another, and, though more or less distinguishable in a large assortment 

 of Indian specimens, are hardly so in Ceylon. Var. tenuz'ssima looks 

 very distinct, but intermediates occur in Continental India and else- 

 where. 'A tall grass, 3-5 ft. high, with beautiful feathery drooping 

 panicles and purple flowers, growing in large quantities in a clayey 

 soil ' (Ferguson). 



3. E. amabilis, Wight a?td Am. ex Hook, and Am. Bot. Beech. 

 Voy. 251, excl. sjyn. (non Linn.). 



E. umolozdes, Nees; Thw. Enum. 373. Poa amabilis^ Moon, Cat. 8 

 (non Linn.). C. P. 930. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 317. Lamk. Illustr. i. t. 45. f. 2 {Poa rubens). 



Annual, glabrous ; stem 6-18 in., tufted, slender, erect or 

 geniculately ascending, leafy chiefly at the base, internodes 

 long ; 1. 3-6 by xo~6 m -> narrowed from the broad subcordate 

 base to the acute tip, quite smooth, rather flaccid, margins 

 smooth, veins obscure, sheaths smooth, mouth narrower than 

 the blade, not auricled, glabrous or sparsely hairy, ligule o or 

 of minute hairs ; panicle oblong or ovoid, 2-4 in. long, rather 

 sparingly branched, rhachis and filiform branches quite 

 smooth ; spikelets \-\ in., very shortly pedicelled, ovate to 

 ovate-oblong, strongly compressed, 20-50-fid., green or red- 

 purple, rhachilla tough, internodes very short, nodes bearing 

 the torn bases of the paleas; empty glumes broadly ovate, 

 cuspidately acuminate, I -veined, fig. glumes about T V in., 

 orbicular-ovate, keels and tips dorsally scaberulous, strongly 

 punctulate as if scaberulous, lateral veins equidistant from 

 the margins and median, produced far up towards the latter, 

 palea broad, rather shorter than the glume and deciduous with 

 it, keels scabridly ciliate; stam. 3, anth. minute, yellow; grain 

 shortly oblong obovoid or oval, laterally compressed, about 

 -gTj in. long, orange-brown, smooth. 



Abundant throughout the warmer regions of the Island. 



Trop. and subtrop. Asia. 



Ferguson describes this as having two kinds of panicles : one narrow, 

 compact ; the other large, open, spreading, with beautiful flowers of a 

 whitish-purple tinge, but sometimes white. 



4. E. g-ang'etica, Steud. Syn. Grain. 266 (1854). Ela-kooru- 

 tana, 6*. 



E. Brownii, Nees; Thw. Enum. S73- E. elegantula, Stapf in Fl. B. 

 Ind. vii. 318 (non Nees). E. orien'alzs, Thw. 1. c. partim. Poa glaucozdes, 

 Moon, Cat. 9. Poa gangetica, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 340. C. P. 925 partim, 931. 



Fl. B. Ind. 1. c. {elegantula). 



Perennial ; stems 2-4 ft., stout, smooth, shining, densely 

 tufted, simple or branched, erect from a mass of stout root- 

 fibres, base in large specimens clothed with shining membra- 

 nous old l.-sheaths; 1. 6-10 in., very narrow, almost filiform, 

 convolute, rigid, quite smooth, glaucous, glabrous, base 



