GRAMINEAE 97 



the rachis, forming a beak which bores into the ground. (In honor of 

 L. M. A. du Petit-Thouars, a French botanist.) 

 A monotypic genus. 



1. T. Involuta (Forst.) R. Br. (T. sarmentosa Pers.). 



A slender, widely creeping grass, the leaves narrowly lanceolate, 2 to 5 

 cm long, 3 to 5 mm wide. Spikes 1 cm long or less. Fruit 0.8 to 1 cm 

 long, Shaped like a bird's head and beak. 



In thickets back of the beach, Paraiiaque, sometimes in pure sand of 

 the beach, fl. Aug.-Jan. ; throughout the Philippines along sandy seashores. 

 Ceylon to Madagascar, Malaya, Australia, and Polynesia. 



29. SPINIFEX Linnaeus 



Coarse, rigid, prostrate, widely spreading, dioecious grasses, the leaves 

 rigid, involute. Male spikelets 1- or 2-flowered, subsessile, jointed on 

 rigid, peduncled, many-flowered spikes which are arranged in umbels sur- 

 rounded by spathaceous leafy bracts; glumes 4, the first and second 

 empty, the third and fourth paleate. Female spikelets collected in large 

 globose heads of radiate, spreading, very long, awn-like spikes, each 

 with a single spikelet at the base, the glumes about as in the staminate 

 spikelets but narrower, the fourth one pistillate. (Latin "spine.") 



Species 4, mostly in Australia, 1 in the Philippines. 



.1. S. littoreus (Burm. f.) Merr. (S. squarrosus L.). 



A gregarious, coarse, stiff, prostrate, widely spreading grass, the stems 

 often 10 to 16 m long, rooting at the nodes and sending up short, stout 

 flowering branches. Leaves stiff, rigid, involute, 10 to 20 cm long, the 

 sheaths often imbricating. Male inflorescences about 15 cm in diameter, 

 the spikelets about 1 cm long, the female inflorescence globose, 20 to 30 cm 

 in diameter, incltiding the long, slender, needle-like awns. 



Along the seashore, Paraiiaque, fl. Aug.-Jan.; widely distributed in the 

 Philippines on sandy seashores. India to China and Malaya. 



The globose female heads become detached and are rolled along the 

 beach by the wind, thus dispersing the seeds. 



30. ORYZA Linnaeus 



Tall, leafy, annual grasses, the leaves flat, long. Panicles more or less 

 elongated, the branches slender. Spikelets many, jointed on the panicle- 

 branches, oblong, laterally compressed, their pedicels annular at the top. 

 Glumes 2 or 3, the first and second much the smallest, scale- or bristle- 

 like, or none, the third chartaceous, obtuse, acute, or awned, 3- or 5-nerved, 

 the palea as long as the glume and similar to it, keeled. Grain free or 

 adnate to the glume and palea. (From its Arabic name.) 



Species 6 or 8, tropical, 3 in the Philippines. 



Spikelets 7 to 9 mm long; cultivated 1. O. aativa 



Spikelets 4 m1n long - 2. 0. manilenais 



*1. O. SATIVA L. Palay (Tag.); Arroz (Sp.) ; Rice. 



An erect, slender or stout, variable, annual grass 1.5 m high or less. 

 Leaves flat, 15 to 30 cm long, up to 2 cm wide. Panicles erect or nodding, 

 25 cm long or less. Spikelets green or purple, 7 to 9 mm long, awned 

 or awnless. (Fl. Filip. ft. 102.) 

 1116BB — 7 



