Jan. 15, 1928.] Revision of the Flora of the Bombay Presidency 428 



35. Schizachyrium. Nees Agrost. Bras, 331. Stapf in Prain 

 Fl. Trop. Afr. ix. 1184. 



Annual or perennial grasses, rarely stiff rutescent, never very tall. Stems 

 slender. Leaf-blades folded in bud, usually narrow. False panicles varying 

 from very loose and scanty to densely fascicled ; spathes mostly very narrow, 

 scarious, membranous or lower down herbaceous. Spikelets 2-nate, of each 

 pair differing in sex and mostly also more or less in shape and in size one sessile 

 the other pedicelled, on the articulate fragile rhachis of many-pointed solitary 

 racemes terminating the culms and their branches, supported by spathes and 

 often collected into a false panicle, the sessile spikelets falling with the conti- 

 guous joint and the accompanying pedicelled spikelets jjoints and pedicels 

 thickened upwards, often rather stout with a scarious cupuliform and more or 

 less dentate terminal appendage. Sessile spikelets dorsally compressed or some- 

 times in their lower half almost terete, awned ; callus short with a short beard 

 at the very base. Involucral glumes equal or subequal, lower chartaceous to 

 subcoriaceous, more or less convex or flat on the back with at least from the 

 middle upwards, sharply inflexed and mostly narrow margins, 2 keeled, the 

 keels running out into teeth or mucros, upper thinner to membranous, nar- 

 rowly boat-shaped to dorsally flattened, keeled (at least upwards), 1-3 nerved, 

 the delicate margins ciliolate Floral glumes, ciliolate, hyaline, lower mem- 

 branous downwards and often purplish, 2-nerved, upper usually 2-fid or 2-den- 

 tate, rarely entire, awned, awn from the sinus or continuing the entire valve, 

 Pale or a microscopic hyaline scale. Lodicules 2, minute, glabrous. Stamens 

 3, rarely 2. Stigmas laterally exerted low down ; style terminal. Grain 

 narrowly linear in outline or tapering upwards, subterete ; embryo short. 

 Pedicelled spikelet similar to the sessile, but usualey relatively broader and 

 flatter, or more or less reduced .and then :sometimes quite small. Involucral 

 glumes, or more or less membranous, the lower aristulate or muticous. = Floral 

 glumes, if present hyaline, ciliate, muticous. 



Species about 50, in the tropics of both hemispheres. 



1. Schizachyrium brevi folium, Nees Agrost. Bras. 332 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii, 

 495 ; Stapf in Prain Fl. Trop Afr. ix, 187 ; Haines Bot. Bihar and Orissa 1042. 

 — Andropogon brevifolius, Sw. Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. 26, Fl. Ind. Occ. i, 209 ; 

 Hack, in monogr. Andiop. vi, 363 (excl. var. fragilis) ; Duthie Grass. N.W. 

 ltd. 19, Fodd. Grass. N. Ind. 34; Hook, f F.B.I, vii, 165.-^4 obtusifolius, 

 Poir. Encycl. Suppl. i, 583.— A parvifolius, Roxb. Fl Ind. i, 277.—A.\tenellus 

 Presl. Rel. Haenk. i, 335.-^4. debilis, Kunth Enum. PI. i, 488.— A. floridus, 

 Trin. in Mem. Acad. Petersb. 6 ser ii, 265.— Pollinia brevifolia, Spreg, Syst, 

 i. 288. 



Description : Annual. Stems weak, up to 60 cm. flong, usually ascending 

 from a decumbent base, rarely erect many-noded, branchedf rom most of the 

 nodes: branches often 2-4-nate and dividing again, very slender to filiform, 

 geniculate, glabrous, the lower internodes usually much compressed. Leaf- 

 blades linear, constricted at the junction with the sheath, the lower and those of 

 the primary branches obtuse or sub-obtuse or suddenly narrowed to a sharp 

 point, 25-38 mm long and 2-6 3 mm. wide, the upper and those of the secon- 

 dary and tertiary branches much narrower and more acute, often glaucescent, 

 smooth except along the margins and the lower side of the midrib, nerves very 

 fine. Ligules membranous, very short, ciliolate Sheaths compressed, the 

 lower keeled, somewhat lax, glabrous, smooth, the uppermost spathe-like ; 

 leaves like the spathe of the inflorescence ultimately turning reddish. Spathes 

 on subcapillary curved or fiexuous branchlets, very narrow, acute, reaching to 

 the base of the racemes or slightly exceeding them ; racemes borne on fiilform 

 upwards clavate peduncles, slender from less than 12 mm. to slightly over 

 25 mm. long, 5-11-jointed ; joints 2-2'7 mm. long, widening upwards from a 

 slender base, tips 2-dentate glabrous, smooth pedicels as long as the joints, 

 very slender and only slightly ^thickeneed upwards. Sessile spikelets |linear* 

 lanceolate, acuminate, more or less convex on the back, pale green, about 

 3*3 mm. long including the minute callus, which is more or less shortly bearded, 

 at least on the sides. Involucral glumes equal lower thinly chartaceous, 2- 

 dentate, scaberulous along the keels, with very fine intracarinal nerves, smooth 

 or very minutely scaberulous on the back ; upper boat-shaped, acute 1-nerved, 

 ciliolate. Lower floral glume eiliptic, obtuse, hyaline, neveless, ciliolate, 

 upper 2-fid almost to the base, 1* 6 mm. long, segments linear-oblong, sub- 



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