May 31, 1928.] Revision of the Flora of the Bombay Presidency B24 



Locality : Deccan : Katraj Ghat, eleven miles S.E. of Poona (Gammie 1037 !) ; 

 liills near Poona \ Woodrow) , — >S. M. Country. Belgaum {Ritchie teste 

 Hook, f.) 



Distribution : W. Peninsula, apparently endemic. 



5. Heieropogon contortus, Roem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. ii, 836 ; Stapf in Prain ; 

 Fl. Trop. Afr. ix, M\.—Andropogon contortus, Linn. Sp. Pi. (1753), 1045^ 

 Hack. Monogr. Androp. 585 {excl. A. polystachyus, Roxb.) ; Hook. f. in F.B-I. 

 vii, 199 ; Cke. ii, 990. For other synonyms see Hook, f . and Stapf 11, cc. 



Vern. Names : — Snnkhali, Nani Sunkhali (Dohad) ; Survalu (Charodi) ; 

 Kursali (Poona) ; Kusal, Sukhli kursali, Ganjali hullu (Belgaum) (ex Burns). 

 Known to Anglo-Indians as Spear grass. 



Description : Cke. 1, c. 



Locality: Gujarat: Sevalia (Chibberl) ; road to Lasandra (Chibber!) ^ 

 Sungiri (Gammie 15586 !) ; Junagad Kathiawar (Blatter 3789 !). — Khandesh : 

 Bhusawal (Gammie \) ; Toranmal (McCann 9640 !). — Konkan : Dahe forests 

 {Ryan 717!); Osarvira forest, Mokhada range (Ryan 190!); Ma- b; r hill 

 (McCann 3620!) ; Mulgaum (McCann 4245 !) ; Parsik, railway line (McCann 

 &655!); above Kenery Caves (McCann 9662 !).— Deccan : Katraj Ghat, 

 11 miles S. E. of 'Poona (Shevade !) ; Trimbak (Chibber !) ; Khandala, very 

 common all over the hills (McCann 9422 !) ; Bairawadi, Purandbar (McCann 

 5059 !) ; Rahuri (Nana A264 !) ; Chattarshinji Hill, Poona (Ezekiel !); Manmad, 

 river bed (Blatter A269 ! ) ; Igatpuri (McCann 4328!); Pancbgani (Blatter & 

 Hallberg B1246!, B1296 !, B1308 !).— S.M. Country : Dharwar, elevation 

 2,400 ft., rainfall 34 inches (Sedgwick 1820 !) ; Castle Rock {Gammie 15686 !) ; 

 Badami (Talbot 2925 \).—Kanara : Yellapore (Talbot 734 !), 



Distribution : Mediterranean region and tropics and subtropics generally. 



Uses : For an interesting account of this grass see W. Burns, L. B. Kulkarni 

 and S, R. Godboie : A study of some Indian Grasses and Grasslands, in Mem. 

 Dept. Agr. India xiv (1925), 28-44. 



Varieties : Hackel (I.e.) distinguishes two varieties and.excluding polystachyus, 

 5 subvarieties. His first variety genuinus is characterized by the male spikelets 

 being more or less covered on the back or at least above or towards the margins 

 with white, patent tubercle-based bristles. This character together with the 

 degree of ramification of the culms forms the foundation of four subvarieties : 

 iypicus, Roxburghii, hispidissimus and secundus. 



The second variety glaber has the male spikelets glabrous. Both varieties 

 -are represented in India, and all the subvarieties except secundus. 



To Hooker f. (1. c.) these varieties and subvarieties appear * to be too in- 

 constant for definition ', and, according to Stapf (I.e.) the inconstancy of those 

 characters * is so evident that it is not worth while to discriminate between the 

 forms corresponding to them.' Haines, too, has abstained from distinguishing 

 varieties and forms. 



Burns and others in the paper quoted above (p. 40) wrote in 1925 : ' In onr 

 observations at Kalas and elsewhere we noticed variability within the species, 

 and early came to the conclusion that there must be definite varieties of Andro- 

 pogon contortus. We can say with confidence that there are at least two 

 varieties, differing markedly in size, habit, longevity, and in morphological 

 characters. One is small and annual, the other large and perennial.' Since 

 then Patwardhan and Hedge have published a paper 1 in which they describe in 

 detail the morphology, anatomy, physiology and ecology of the two varieties. 

 As the authors themselves identify their perennial variety with Hackel's 

 •subvariety typicus, and their annual variety with Hackel's hispidissimus, we 

 shall refer to them in the following under Hackel's names. The description is 

 laken entirely from the paper just mentioned. 

 Key to the varieties. 

 1. Lower involucral glume of pedicelled 

 spikelet sparsely hairy with long tuber- 

 cle-based deciduous hairs on the back, 

 in the upper part and towards the 



margins ; lower part glabrous ... {a) var genuinus, subv. 



typicus. 



/ a G. B. Patwardhan and G. R. Hedge, Two varieties of Andropogon contor- 

 ius, Linn. In Journ. Ind. Bot. Soc, vi (1927) 213. 



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