639 Jour., Bom. Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 {May 31, 1928, 



(Blatter & Hallberg A145!).— 5. M. Country : Dharwar, garden weed 

 (Sedgwick 2651!); Haveri (Talbot 2231!); Badami (Woodrow teste Cooke). 

 Distribution : Throughout India, Ceylon, Afghanistan, tropical Africa (Upper 

 Guinea, Cape Verd Islands,). 



4. Brachiaria distachya, Haines in Bot. Bihar & Orissa 1004 {per errorem 

 distachyum) .— Pani:um distachyum, Linn. Mant. i, 138; Retz. Obs. iii, 17; 

 Lamk. Til. t. 43, f. 2 ; Steud. Syn. Gram. 41 ; Aitchis. Cat. Panjab, PL 159 ; 

 Duthie Grass N. W. Ind. 3 ; Indig. Fodd. Grass, t. 42, Fodd. Grass. N. Ind. 6 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austral, vii, 478 ; Hook. f. in F.B.I, vii, 37. — P. subquadriparum , 

 Trin. Gram. Panic. 145, Sp. Gram. Ic. t. 186.— Digitaria distachya, Pers. Syn. 

 i, 85. 



Description : A slender, creeping grass, glabrous or panicle sparsely hairy. 

 Stems 30-60 cm. high. Leaves linear or lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acu- 

 minate, 5-15 cm. by 3-6 mm., widest at the rounded or amplexicaul base, flat ; 

 sheaths ciliate or not on the margins, mouth hairy. Spikes 2-4, distant, 2 5-65 

 cm. long, rarely more than 10 cm., erect, at last spreading; rhachis slender, 

 glabrous. Spikelets variable in size, pale green, 3-4 mm. long, solitary, subses- 

 sile, spikately arranged in 2 (-1) series, ellipsoid, glabrous. Lower involucral 

 glume embracing the spikelet and margins overlapping below, i to nearly \ the 

 spikelet, 5-7-nerved, obtuse or subacute ; upper involucral glume ovate, acute, 

 7-nerved, paieate or not, pale if present narrow, neuter. Lower floral glume 

 5-nerved, upper ellipsoid, obtuse or rounded, 2 mm. long, brown and minutely 

 transversely lineolate or obscurely rur ulose when ripe. 



Locality : Gujarat : Ahmedabad, banks and margins of fields around Ahmeda- 

 bad (Sedgwick 239 !).— S.M. Country : Dharwar (Sedgwick 2840 !). 



Distribution : India, Ceylon, China, Malaya, Australia, 



46. PAvSpalum, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. x, 855 ; Cke. ii, 943. 



Species over 200, chiefly in tropical America, only a few in the Old World. 



Cooke describes 3 species : P. scrobiculatum, Linn., P. compactum, Roth, 

 and P. distichum, Linn., to which we add Paspalum dilatatum, Poir. P. 

 distichum has to be replaced by P. vaginatum, Sw., for reasons detailed below. 

 I. Leaves over 14 cm. long 



1. Plant 60-90 cm. high ... ... 1. P. scrobiculatum. 



2. Plant 1-1-5 m. high ... ... 2. P. dilatatum. 



II. Leaves less than 11 cm, long 



1. Leaves 2 -5-7 '5 cm long, 8--12 mm. 



broad ... .,. ... 3. P. compactum. 



2. Leaves 5-10 cm. long, 1*2-4 mm. 



broad ... ... ... 4. P. vaginatum. . 



1. Paspalijm scrobiculatum, Linn. Mantiss. (1767), 29 ; Hook. f. in F. B. I. vii 

 10 ; Cke. ii, 943 ; Haines in Bot. Bihar & Orissa 1000.— P. scrobiculatum, 

 Linn. var. Commersonii, Stapf in Prain Fl. Trop. Afr. ix, 573.— P. scrobicu- 

 latum, Linn. var. frumentaceum, Stapf 1. c. 575.— P. scrobiculatum, Linn. var. 

 polystachyum, Stapf 1. c. 576.— For further synonyms see Hook. f. and Stapf 

 11. cc. Hook f. gives P. orbiculare, Forst. Prodr. 7 as a synonym, but Stapf 

 considers it as a distinct species of the Polynesian and Indo-Malayan regions 

 with an extension into New Zealand and Australia. Of Hook. f. syn. in the 

 F. B. I. we wish to enclose only those which apply to spontaneous forms of the 

 Old World. 



As can be seen from the above synonymy we are not following Stapf in 

 distinguishing several varieties or rather forms. He takes the cultivated forms 

 of India to be the original P. scrobiculatum of Linnaeus and calls it P. scrobicu- 

 latum var. frumentaceum. All the spontaneous forms of P. scrobiculatum as 

 understood by most post-Linnaean authors are put by Stapf under P. scrobicu- 

 latum, Linn. var. Commersonii, the type for this combination being P. 

 Commersonii, Lam. 111. i, 175, t. 43, fig. 1. The third form var. polystachyum 

 does not seem to occur in India. 



Description : Cke. 1. c. 



Locality : Sind : Jamesabad, in bed of watercourse (Sabnis B979 !) ; Bohara 



(Blatter & McCann D689 !).— Konkan : Victoria Gardens, Bombay (McCann 



4297 !) ; Mulgaum, Salsette (McCann 3607 !) ; Parsik, between stones of railway 



tl act (McCann 9516!); Vihar Lake, Salsette (McCann 9517 \).-Deccan : 



[18] 



