Eragrostis.] Graminecs. 295 



length of the glume, orange-yellow; grain globose tq~tu in. 

 ■diam., smooth, not striolate, hilum large. 



Central Province ; not uncommon (Thwaites). Jaffna (Gardner, 

 Trimen). Common in dry sandy soils in cinnamon gardens (Ferguson). 

 Trop. Asia and Africa. 



6. E. elong-ata, J acq. Eclog. Gram. 3, t. 3. IVIal-aetora-tana, S. 



E. zeylanica, Nees and Mey. in Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. xix. Suppl. i. 205 ; 

 Thw. Enum. 373. C. P. 3251. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 319. 



Perennial (?); stem 1-2 ft., slender, erect or ascending, 

 leafy chiefly at the base, upper internodes very long ; 1. short, 

 2-3 in., very narrowly linear, erect, rather rigid, smooth, not 

 glaucous, upper surface towards the base hirsute, sheaths 

 smooth, auricles glabrous or bearded, ligule a ridge of most 

 minute hairs; panicle erect, 2-7 in. long, broadly ovate, very 

 lax, rhachis slender, smooth, strict, branches few, very short, 

 1 in. long, solitary, distant, filiform, strict, horizontally spread- 

 ing, rarely again branched, bearing from or near the base 

 upwards 6-10 or more subsessile usually crowded spikelets, 

 lower branches often far down the rhachis ; spikelets \-~ by 

 y in., all pointing forwards, very shortly pedicelled, linear, 

 pale or reddish, very many-fid., rhachilla stout, rigid, smooth; 

 glumes 20-30, coriaceous with hyaline margins, epunctate, 

 I and II unequal, ovate, acuminate, strongly i-veined, fig. 

 glumes broadly ovate, acuminate, laterally much compressed, 

 keel nearly straight, palea linear-oblong, obtuse, persistent, 

 keels stout, scabrid ; stam. 3, anth. about ^ in. the length of 

 the glume, dark orange-yellow; grain globose or globosely 

 •oblong, -gQ—xo in. diam., rather rough, orange-brown. 



Hotter parts of the Island. Ratnapura (Thwaites), Opatte (Trimen). 



S. Europ., Trop. As., Afr., Australia, Pacific Islds. 



In the Peradeniya Herbarium, C. P. 3251 is the only number given 

 to this; the other C. P. number given in Fl. B. Ind. (under elo?igata), 

 931, is E. Brownii of Herb. Perad. (gangetica). As to C. P. 3047, in 

 Thwaites's Index of C. P. numbers (Enum. p. 464), pp. 352 and 434 are 

 referred to for it, but on both these pages Eleocharis fistnlosa bears 

 that number. The hirsute base of the leaves on the upper surface 

 ^distinguishes this from the very closely allied E. stenophylla. 



7. E. nigra, Nees ex Steud. Syn. Gram. 267 (1854). 



E. fianicalata, Thw. Enum. 373 (non Steud.). C. P. 2626. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vii. 324. 



Perennial; stem up to 3 ft., rather stout or slender, leafy; 

 -1. up to 7 by \ in., flat, flaccid, finely almost aristately acumi- 

 nate, faintly scaberulous above, beneath and margins smooth, 

 .base narrowed, sheaths smooth, auricles bearded with long 

 hairs, ligule a ridge of very short hairs; panicle up to 8 in. 

 long, effuse, rhachis slender and branches smooth, upper 



