431 Jour., Bom. Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXXII, No. 3. {Jan. 15, 1928. 



fasc. v (1844), 76.— A. circinnatus. Hochst. e* Steud. Svn. PL Glum, i (1855), 

 387.-^7. Arria?ii, Edgew. in Journ. Linn. Soc. vi (1862), 208.— A Jzi'aran- 

 cusa, subsp. laniger, Hook.f. F.B.L vii. 203; Cke. ii, 976 (var. tantum) . — 

 Gymnanthelia lanigera, Anderss. in Schweinf. Beitr. Fl. Aethiop. 306 {women 

 tantum) . 



For a discussion of the foundation of this species see Stapf in Kew Bull. 

 (1906), 303-305. 



Description : Perennial, compactly caespitose, with numerous intravaginal 

 innovations, 15-45 cm. high. Culms erect, slender, few — to 4-noded and simple 

 below the inflorescence, terete, glabrous, very rarely with a few small hairs at 

 the nodes. Leaf-blades semiterete, filiform > wiry, flexuous, very firm and 

 often circinate upwards, rounded on the back, channelled on the face, or those 

 of the culms somewhat flatter and shorter, up to more than 23 tm. long, 1 mm. 

 in diameter, glabrous, finely scaberulous on the nerves below, though often 

 smooth to the touch, pale, glaucous, evenly 7-9-nerved, the midrib showing 

 only above as a broad, white band. Ligules membranous to scarious, oblong, 

 truncate, ciliate, up to 3*3 mm. long. Sheaths very firm, smooth, glabrous, 

 tight, those of the innovations and base of the culms widened at the base, very 

 tough and long-persistent, straw-coloured, up to 13 cm. long. Spatheate 

 panicle narrow, 8-30 cm. long, few — to 7-noded lower internodes 5-7*5 cm. 

 long, upper rapidly decreasing in length, slender, glabrous ; lowest primary 

 branch rarely undivided at the base, 3-2-noded and up to 15 cm. long, usually 

 forming up to 4-rayed tiers ; lowest subtending sheaths with foliaceous blades; 

 rays finely filiform, 2*5-3*7 cm. long, rarely to over 5 cm., glabrous ; spathes 

 narrowly lanceolate, subherbaceous, often tinged with pale purple, with a 

 short blade or the upper bladeless and produced into a setaceous point, 3*7-4*3 

 cm. long, glabrous. Spatheoles very narrow, acute or with a setaceous point, 

 12-25 mm. long, pale or straw-coloured ; peduncles finely filiform, widened up- 

 wards 3*3-4*2 mm. long, tips truncate. Racemes 2-nate, more or less divari- 

 cate, at length epinastically deflexed, 1-2 mm. long, white-villous, pale or 

 tinged with purple, one subsessile, the other with a bare base, 1-2 mm long, 

 bases puberulous to pubescent in the fork, ciliate-bearded upwards, with 

 minutely cupular and denticulate tips, that of the subsessile raceme as well as 

 the adjacent pedicel stout, elliptic to elliptic-oblong in outline and convex on 

 the back, ultimately more or less glabrescent and glossy ; fertile joints filiform, 

 slightly widened towards the oblique subcupular auricled tips, 2* 7-3 3 mm. 

 long, densely hairy to villous from the back and the angles ; adjacent pedicels 

 similar to the joints but more slender. Homogamous pair of spikelets one at 

 the base of the sessile or of both racemes ; the sessile spikelet of the lowest but 

 one of the sessile raceme intermediate and imperfectly awned. Fertile spike- 

 lets linear-lanceolate, more or less acuminate, acute, including the callus 

 5*3-6*3 or even 7*4 mm. long, glabrous, pale green below, reddish upwards; 

 callus short obtuse, shortly bearded. Involucral glumes equal, chartaceous, 

 lower nerveless and shallowly concave between the acute scaberulous keels, 

 minutely 2-denticulate, upper lanceolate-oblong in profile, acute, slightly 

 curved on the back, 1-nerved, margins broadly hyaline upwards, ciliate. 

 Lower floral glume linear-oblong, nerveless, hyaline, ciliolate, slightly shorter 

 than the involucral glumes, upper very narrow, shortly 2-fid, cuneate-linear 

 and chartaceous below the insertion of the awn, less than 3*3 mm. long, 

 lobes broadly lanceolate, ciliate, awn up to 1 cm. long, very fine, more or less 

 keeled at and slightly twisted below the middle ; column smooth. Anthers 

 2 mm. long. Pedicelled spikelets male, linear-oblong, 4*2-6*3 mm. long, 

 glabrous, more reddish than the sessile ; involucral glumes subchartaceous, 

 with 5-9 evenly distant intracarinal nerves, the upper thinner, 3-nerved ; lower 

 floral glume linear-oblong, sub-2-nerved, ciliolate, 4'2 mm. long; upper 

 floret reduced to a male flower, or its glume present as a microscopic scale. 



Locality : Sind : (Stocks 816, Woodrow) ; Jemadar ka Landa near 

 Karachi (Stocks). 



Distrbution : From Morocco through N. Africa, Arabia, Persia, Afghani- 

 stan, Baluchistan, Punjab, Sind. 



History and Uses : See Stapf in Kew Bull. (1906), 305-313, 353. 



2. Cymbopogon Jwarancusa, Schult. Mant. ii (1824), 458 ; Stapf in Kew Bull. 

 (1906), 354 ; Haines Bot. Bihar and Orissa 1045.— Andropogon Jwarancusa 

 Jones in Asiat. Research, iv (1795), 109 ; Cke. ii, 976.— A. Jwarancusa var. 



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