Poa.] Graminece. 305 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 334. Burm. Fl. Ind. t. 12, f. 2 {Dactylis lagopoides). 

 Desf. Fl. Atlant. i. t. 15 (D. repens). 



A rigid, tufted herb; stem 3-6 in., crowded on a woody 

 rootstock with stout root-fibres, erect, as thick as a crow-quill, 

 simple or branched, polished, branches sometimes elongate, 

 divaricate, 6-10 in. long, resembling stolons, giving off 

 branchlets at the nodes, but not rooting, nodes glabrous, 

 internodes short or long; 1. \-\ in., narrowly lanceolate, 

 acuminate, flat or convolute and subulate, erect or spreading, 

 glabrous or silkily hairy, striate, base contracted, rounded, 

 margins smooth or sparsely ciliate, sheaths short, terete or 

 inflated, glabrous or ciliate, mouth hardly auricled, ligule an 

 obscure hairy ridge ; heads of spikelets shortly peduncled, 

 globosely ovoid or shortly oblong, £-§ in. diam., tomentose, 

 white; spikelets tVt:V i n - '■> glumes closely imbricate, persistent 

 on the rhachilla, callus very short ; grain -^ in-, obovate- 

 oblong, dorsally compressed. 



Sandy sea-shores, from Jaffna southwards. Spikelets pale green or white. 



From the Mediterranean and Caspian regions to the Punjab, Scind, 

 and Southern India. 



Dactylis glomerata, Linn. (Cock's-foot grass), is said to occur at 

 Nuwara Eliya, but, no doubt, has been introduced there. I found 

 Anthoxanthum odoratinn, L. (sweet-scented vernal grass), also in the 

 place in 1879 (Ferguson). 



74. POA, L. 



Annual or perennial grasses; 1. flat or convolute; spikelets 

 2-6-fld., in open or close panicles, laterally compressed, not 

 articulate on their pedicels; rhachilla articulate at the base, 

 usually terminated by one or more imperfect neuter glumes ; 

 glumes thinly herbaceous, strongly keeled, I and II empty, 

 1-3-veined, persistent, flg. glumes 5-7-veined, lateral veins 

 converging towards the tip, callus very short, and rhachilla 

 often bearded with woolly or silky hairs; lodicules 2; stam. 3, 

 anth. short; styles short, free, stigmas plumose, laterally 

 exserted ; grain ovoid-oblong or linear, free in the glume and 

 palea, hilum punctiform. — Sp. about 80 ; 17 in Fl. B. Ind. 



P. annua, Li7in. Sp. PI. 68 (1753). 



Thw. Enum. 372. C. P. 2393. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 345. Host, Gram. Austriac. ii. t. 64.; 

 An annual or perennial, soft, flacid, glabrous, stoloniferous 

 grass; stems 6-12 in., tufted, or shortly creeping and rooting 

 below, erect or ascending, leafy, slightly compressed, stolons 

 slender ; 1. 2-4 by ^-| in., linear, acute or obtuse, flat, flaccid, 

 smooth, or margins, slightly scaberulous; sheaths up to 2 in. 



PART V. X 



