Jan. 15, 1928] Revision of the Flora of the Bombay Presidency 410 



" circa Zeylonam natans supra stagna profundiora," and entirely distinct from 

 Andropogon muricaius. Tne specimen is still in Linnseus' herbarium aid was 

 correctly identified by R. Brown 1 with his Panicum abortivum, that is Chamce 

 raphis spinescens, a characteristic floating grass of the Indo-Malayan region. 

 Retzius 2 himself s responsible for the erroneous reduction of Andropogon 

 squarrosus to Andropogon muricatus, which recently has been revived, although 

 Roxburgh 3 long ago drew attention to the confusion. " Zizanioides " being 

 the earliest specific epithet, it will have to be adopted for the '! Khas Khas," so 

 that its name under Veliveria must be V . zizanioides.'' 



Vern. Names : Vala, Ushir, Valo, Bala, Khas Khas of the Anglo-Indians, 



Description: A densely tufted perennial grass. Rootstcck branching with 

 spongy aromatic roots. Culms stout, up to over l - 8 m. high, usually sheathed 

 all along. Leaf-sheaths compressed, especially the lower which are sharply 

 keeled and fan-like, imbricate, very smooth, firm ; liguJes reduced to ascarious 

 rim ; blades narrowly linear, acute, 30-90 cm. long, 4"2-10G mm. wide, erect, 

 rigid, firm or somewhat spongy, usually glabrous, rarely more or less hairy 

 downwards on the face, pale green, midrib slender, lateral nerves close, 6 or 

 more on each side, rather stout, slightly prominent, margin spinously rough. 

 Panicle oblong up to over 30 cm. long, usually contracted ; rhachis stout, 

 smooth ; whorls 6-10 with up to 20 rays ; branches oblique to suberect, naked 

 for up to 5 cm., filiform, slightly rough. Racemes up to 5 (rarely 7'5) cm. long, 

 very slender ; joints about as long as the sessile spikelets or sometimes distinctly 

 exceeding them, smooth or more or less rough, minutely and unequally ciliolate 

 at the slightly oblique tips ; pedicels similar, but shorter. Sessile spikelet 

 linear-lanceolate to almost linear, acute or subacute, 4*2-4 - 8 mm long, yellow- 

 ish, olive or violet-brown or purplish to almost black; callus obtuse, under 

 1 mm. long, glabrous. Involucral glumes, acute, coriaceous, lower muriculate 

 all over the back, 5-nerved, lateral nerves close, very fine ; upper spinulously 

 muricate on the keel. Lower floral glume as long as the involucral glumes, 

 acute, reversedly ciliolate, upper up to 3*3 mm. long, narrow, oblong-lanceolate, 

 mucronulate, ciliate. Lodicules 2, quadrate and conspicuous, though small. 

 Styles and stigmas short. Stigmas purple. Anthers 2-3*3 mm. long. Pedi- 

 celled spikelet sparingly aculeolate or almost smooth ; upper floral glume entire, 

 acute. 



Locality: Gujarat: Road to Lasandra (Chibber!); Daman (Bhide!); 

 Ahmedabad, common in damp valleys (Sedgwick!). — Konkan : Ghatkoper, 

 Horse-shoe Valley (McCaim 9957 !).— N. Kanara : Dandeli (Talbot 2209 !). 



Cke. I.e. classes this species amongst non-indigenous plants We are of 

 opinion that it is indigenous in most parts of the Presidency. 



Distribution : Practically over the whole of India, and eastwards to Burma. 

 Occasionally cultivated. Lower Guinea in Tropical Africa. Throughout the 

 Malayan region only cultivated or as an escape. Introduced into the Mascare- 

 nes, the West Indies and Brazil. 



Early history and economic uses : See Stapf in Kew Bull., I.e. 



29. Chrysopogon, Trin. Fund. Agrost. 187 ; Stapf in Fl. Trop. Afr., 



ix, 159. 



Perennial (at least in the Old World). Leaf-blades narrow. Panicles 

 usually lax, of whorls of simple or basally divided filiform branches, rarely 

 the branches 2-nate or solitary. Spikelets in threes at the ends of the 

 branchlets of terminal panicles, one sessile, the other 2 pedicelled, the three 

 falling entire from the thickened, nearly always bearded, oblique tips of the 

 peduncles ; exceptionally 2-nate in 2-jointed racemes, one sessile, the other 

 pedicelled, each sessile spikelet falling with the contiguous joint and its 

 pedicelled companion, pedicels and joints, if present linear-filiform, never 

 longitudinally grooved or appendaged. Florets 2, lower reduced to an emptv 

 glume, upper hermaphrodite in the sessile, male or neuter in the pedicelled 

 spikelet. JSessile spikelets usually laterally compressed, awned. Involucral 

 glumes subequal ; lower coriaceous or chartaceous, involute with a rounded 



R. Brown Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. (1810), 193. 



! Retz., 1. c, v (1789), 21. 



'Roxburgh Fl. Ind. ed., Carey and Wall. I (1820), 270. 



[3] 



