419 Jour. Bom. Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXXII, No. 3. [Jan. 15, 1928. 



s. str. and var. coloratus, but excluding var. Hookeri and var. glabrescens. 

 Quartin's specimen No. 14, collected in Abyssinia, and representing a form with 

 large spikelets, has, according to Stapf , to be considered as the basis of the 

 species, whilst Schimper's 1532, the type of Arthraxon coloratus, stands for 

 the other extreme. 



Arthroxan quartinianus , Nash, includes all the material of the Bombay Pre- 

 sidency that has come under our observation. 



The rest of A. ciliaris, Beauv. et auctorum has to be studied separately, but 

 as the material lies outside the Presidency we leave it to other botanists to work 

 out their respective material. 



Description: Annual. Stems very slender, ascending from a branched, 

 sometimes prostrate and rooting base, from 8-30 cm. high, smooth, glabrous or 

 finely puberulous below the inflorescence, with solitary or 2 to 3-nate branches 

 above, internodes mostly exserted. Leaf-blades ovate-lanceolate to oblong- 

 lanceolate from a cordate amplexicaul base, finely acuminate, 25 to over 

 50 mm. long by 6-12 mm. broad, flaccid, with scattered tubercle- based hairs on 

 both sides, ciliate towards the base, primary lateral nerves 3-4 on each side, 

 very fine ; ligules membranous, ciliolate, short, truncate ; sheaths lax, the upper 

 very often more or less inflated and bladeless, more or less hirsute in the upper 

 part with tubercle-based hairs and densely ciliate along the upper margins, 

 nodes shortly bearded. Racemes 1 to about 9, in fascicles, born on filiform, 

 ultimately long exserted peduncles, 2*5-15 cm. long, very slender, flexuous ; 

 rhachis fragile ; joints 3*3 mm. long, usually shortly ciliate, but the uppermost 

 cilia sometimes up to 1*6 mm. long, sometimes glabrous or nearly so ; pedicels 

 reduced to a minute point or subule. Spikelets solitary, sessile, oblong-lanceo- 

 late in profile, somewhat oblique, laterally compressed, including the very 

 minute glabrous or minutely puberulous callus, 3 - 3-4'2 mm. long. Involucral 

 glumes subequal, lower subchartaceous, acute, scaberulous along the very 

 slender 7-9 nerves or almost smooth towards the base, upper obliquely lanceolate 

 to linear-lanceolate in profile, acute or minutely mucronate, 3- (rarely 5-) 

 nerved, eciliate. Lower floral glume oblong, obtuse, hyaline, obscurely 

 2-nerved. shorter by \ than the involucral glumes, upper narrowly linear- 

 lanceolate in profile, 2-2*7 mm. long, awn from near the base, usually 6"3 mm. 

 long, more rarely down to 4'2 or up to 8*5 mm. long, very delicate, kneed and 

 twisted beicw the middle. Stamens 2. 



Locality: Gujarat: Chamargaon (Woodrow). — Khandesh : common 

 (McCann ! ) . — Konkan : very common (McCann !) .— Dcccan . Mahableshwar 

 (Sedgwick and Bell 4501 !) ; Panchgani (Blatter and Hallberg B1244 !, B1252 !, 

 B1257!, B1266 !, B1273 !, B1290!) Khandala, very common (McCann!).— 

 S. M. Country: S. W. of Dharwar (Sedgwick and Bell 4434!); Dharwar 

 (Sedgwick 3098 !) ; Gadag (Talbot 2304 !) ; Belgaum (Ritchie 796 A).— Kanara: 

 Halyal (Talbot 2161 !) ; Yellapore (Talbot 1057 !). 



Distribution : From Bihar southwards to Ceylon, Tropical Africa (Nileland, 

 Upper and Lower Guinea, Mozambique District), introduced into Jamaica and 

 Guadeloupe. 



6. Arthraxon jubatus, Hack. Monogr. Androp. (1889), 358 ; Hook. f. in F. B. I. 

 vii, 147 ; Cke. ii, 970. 



Description : Cke. I.e. 



Locality : Konkan-. (Law, Stocks). — Deccan: Kori Fort, 12 miles south of 

 Lonavla (Woodrow) ; Khandala, damp rocks (Hallberg 9788!) ; Lohagad Fort, 

 top (McCann 9789 ! ) 



Distribution : W. Peninsula, apparently endemic. 



31. Capillipedium, Stapf in Fl. Trop. Afr. ix, 169. 



Annual or perennial grasses. Stems slender, simple or branched, sometimes 

 very copiously, often bearded at the nodes. Leaf blade with a rather con- 

 spicuous white midrib Panicles delicate, when much divided the branchlets at 

 length more or less divergent. Spikelets small, 2-nate, one sessile, the other 

 pedicelled, similar in shape but differing in sex, in 1-2- (rarely up to 8-) jointed 

 racemes at the ends of the capillary primary and secondary and often tertiary 

 or even quaternary branches of a loose panicle ; joints and pedicels finely fili- 

 form, longitudinally grooved and hyaline in the groove, disarticulating 

 horizontally ; sessile and pedicelled spikelets deciduous, the former with the 

 adjacent joint and pedicel. Florets 2 in the sessile spikelet, lower reduced to 

 [12] 



