GRAMINEAE ' 79 



1. M. GRANULARIS L. f. 



A slender, more or less hairy grass 20 to 60 cm high, erect, at length 

 much-branched. Leaves 15 cm long or less, 3 to 12 mm wide, papillose- 

 hirsute, margins ciliate. "Spikes 1 to 2 cm long, slender. Sessile spikelet 

 about 1 mm in diameter, the pedicellate one about 2 mm long. 



In dry grass lands, near Fort McKinley, fl. Sept.-Dec; widely distrib- 

 uted in the Philippines, certainly introduced. Tropics generally. 



12. OPHIURUS Gaertner 



Annual or perennial, erect, fine or coarse grasses, the spikes solitary 

 or fascicled, fragile, cylindric. Spikelets 1-flowered, solitary, sessile in 

 the joints of the rachis, the lateral ones absent or very rudimentary. 

 Glumes 4, the first thickly coriaceous, the second thin, the third and fourth 

 hyaline. (Greek "snake" and "tail" in allusion to the shape of the spike.) 



Species 2, Africa, Asia, and Malaya, both in the Philippines, 1 in our 

 area. 



1. O. monostachyus Presl. 



A slender, somewhat wiry, erect or ascending, loosely tufted, glabrous 

 grass 20 to 40 cm high. Leaves linear, 15 cm long or less, about 2 mm 

 wide. Spikes solitary, slender, cylindric, 5 to 10 cm long, 2 mm in diameter, 

 the spikelets immersed in the joints of the rachis, about 4 mm long. 



Banks of old rice paddies and in open grass lands, Caloocan, San Juan 

 del Monte, etc., fl. Sept.-March; not common in the Philippines. Marianne 

 Islands, Formosa, Hongkong, and Tonkin. 



' 13. APLUDA Linneaus 



Tall, leafy, erect or scandent grasses, the stems usually more or less 

 decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, branched. Leaves flat, numer- 

 ous. Inflorescence of many, small, simple spikes, each subtended by a 

 special thin spathe, together forming a leafy panicle. Spikes of one linear 

 joint, swollen at the base, jointed on the top of the peduncle at the base 

 of the spathe. Spikelets 3, one sessile, 2-flowere.d, flowers perfect, one 

 pedicelled, imperfect, reduced to a small glume, and one terminal, male or 

 neuter, rarely bisexual. Glumes- 4, the fourth awned or not, entire or 

 2-toothed. Grain oblong. (Said to be from the resemblance of the glumes 

 to chaff.) 



A genus of one or two variable species, India to Malaya and Polynesia, 

 one in the Philippines. 



1. A. mutica L. Cauacauayan (Tag.). 



A tall, erect or subscandent, somewhat slender and glaucous grass, 

 glabrous or nearly so, 1 to 2 m high, the stems round, smooth, branched, 

 solid. Leaves acuminate, 10 to 30 cm long, 5 to 10 wide, base narrowed, 

 usually somewhat petioled, the upper ones gradually shorter. Spathes 

 subtending the spikelets lanceolate to linear-fanceolate, variable in length, 

 longer or shorter than the peduncles, the spikes about 8 mm long, green 

 or purplish, the spikelets awnless. 



In thickets, fl. Sept.-Feb.; widely distributed in the Philippines. India 

 to China, Malaya, and Polynesia. 



