[From the Journal of the Bombay Natural Hist. Soc, January 15, 1928.] 



REVISION OF 

 THE FLORA OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY 



BY 



E. Blatter, s.j., Ph.D., f.l.s. 



PART V 



GRAMINEL-E 



BY 



E. Blatter and C. McCann 



{Continued from page 298 of this Volume. ) 



27. Cleistaceine, Bsnth. in Hook. Ic. PL xiv, 60, t. 1379 ; Stapf in FL 



Trop. Afr. ix r 154. 



Tall, rather coarse grasses, annual according to Stapf, perennial according 

 to Hook. f. Leaves long, narrow, flat, with stout midribs. Panicles narrow, 

 more or less contracted, greyish or fulvously hairy. Spikelets solitary, all 

 alike, hermaphrodite, pedicelled on the tough rhachis of racemosely arranged 

 or panicled racemes, falling entire from the thickened tips of the pedicels. 

 Florets 2, lower reduced to an empty glume, upper hermaphrodite. Involucral 

 glumes equal, very similar, with involute margins, more or less coriaceous, 

 delicately 7-9-nerved, muticous. Floral glumes hyaline, lower 2-nerved, upper 

 2-dentate or subentire, 3-nerved, with a twisted flexuous awn from the sinus or 

 tip; pale very minute, ciliate. Lodicules 2, broad-cuneate, sparingly ciliate. 

 Stamens 3. Stigmas laterally exserted , plumose. Grain oblong to obovoid- 

 oblong, very obtuse or truncate ; embryo half the length of the grain. 



Species 3, one in West India and 2 in tropical Africa. 



1. Cleistachne Stocksii, Hook. f. in F. B. I. vii, 163. 



Description : Stem tall, stout, simple. Leaves 3J-40 cm. by 12 mm., finely 

 acuminate, softly hairy, midrib stout, margins slightly thickened, ciliolate, 

 sheath terete, ligule oblong, coriaceous. Panicle 15-20 cm. long, long- 

 peduncled, sub-erect ; rhachis and branches sparsely ciliate, pedicles of spike- 

 lets strigose with bright yellow hairs. Spikelets 5 mm. long, crowded, dark 

 brown, callus short, bearded. Lower involucral glume dark brown, obscurely 

 many-nerved, hirsute, shining, upper like lower, but narrower nearly glabrous. 

 Lower floral glume 2-nerved, margins infolded, tip hispid, upper a twisted awn 

 16-25 mm. long, dilated at the base into a hyaline, entire, 3-nerved membrane, 

 embracing the minute, ovate, obtuse pale. 



Locality: Tungar forest, Bassein (Bhidef). 



Distribution : So far only found in Malabar on the Bababoodan Hills. 



28. Vetiveria, Thouars ex Virey in Journ. de Pharm. 1. sen, xiii, 499 ; 



Stapf in FL Trop. Afr. ix, 156. 



Coarse, perennial, glabrous grasses ; rhizomes stout ; culms stout, more or 

 less compressed below. Leaf-biades firm to hard, conduplicate in bud, then 

 flattening out, at least upwards, gradually passing into the sheath ; lower 

 sheaths much compressed, flabellate-imbricate. Panicles erect, long, of many- 

 rayed whorls of slender simple or rarely compound racemes, glabrous except 

 for the frequently bearded calli. Spikelets 2-nate, of each pair subsimilar, 

 differing in sex, one sessile, the other pedicelled, on the articulate fragile 

 rhachis of copiously whorled (rarely panicled) peduncled 3-to many-jointed 

 racemes, the sessile spikelets falling with the contiguous joint and the accom- 

 panying pedicelled spikelet or at least the accompanying pedicel ; joints and 

 pedicels slender, slightly and gradually thickened upwards. Florets 2, lower 

 reduced to an empty glume, upper hermaphrodite in the sessile, male in the 

 pedicelled spikelets. Sessile spikelet laterally slightly compressed, awned or 



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