104 A FLORA OF MANILA 



the flowering glumes. Glumes few or many, keeled, the first and second 

 shorter than the flowering glumes, subequal or unequal, persistent. Flower- 

 ing-glumes 3-nerved. Grain free, pericarp hyaline, loose. (Name of a 

 Greek town where Ceres, goddess of harvests, was worshipped!!;) _ 



Species about 7, tropical and subteniperate regions, one in the Philip- 

 pines. 



1. E. INDICA (L.) Gaertn. 



A rather stout, tufted, annual, erect, glabrous gra?s 10 cm to 1 m high. 

 Leaves 10 to 30 cm long, sometiipes involute when dry, 3 to 7 mm wide, 

 distichous, rather flaccid, the sheaths flattened. Spikes 3 to 6, all in a 

 terminal whorl, or one or two lower down, 2.5 to 10 cm long, 3 to 5 mm 

 thick. Spikelets very numerous, crowded, 3- to 5-iBowered, 3 to 4 mm 

 long, the first glume 1-nerved, small, the second 3-nerved, the third and' 

 succeeding ones ovate, acute. 



Very common in waste places, along roadsides, etc., fl. all the year; 

 throughout -the Philippines, probably of prehistoric introduction. Tropics 

 of the Old World, naturalized in America. 



41. DACTYLOCTENIUM Willdenow 



More or less tufted annual grasses. Leaves flat. Spikelets numerous, 

 crowded, imbricated, spreading, several-flowered, alternate in several rows 

 in dense, 1-sided spikes which are digfitately arranged at the apices of the 

 stems. Glumes several, keeled, acute, or shortly awned, the two lower ones 

 empty, slightly unequal, the uppejr glumes broader, the lower ones enclosing 

 a 2-keeled palea and a flower, the upper ones empty. (Greek "finger" and 

 "little comb.") 



Species few, tropical, one in the Philippines. 



1. D. .EGYPTIUM (L.) Willd. 



A rather coarse grasi 16 to 60 cm high, the basal parts decumbent, 

 usually more or less creeping and rooting, the flowering stems erect or 

 ascending. Leaves 5 to 18 cm long 2 to 6 mm wide, the sheaths loose, 

 imbricate. Spikes 3 or 4, rarely only 2, digitate, stout, often purplish, 1 

 to 5 cm long, 5 to 7 mm thick, the rachis excurrent at the tip, mucronate. 

 Spikelets "numerous, densely crowded, spreading, about 3 mm long, 3- or 

 4-flowered, the first glume ovate, acute, the second obliquely awned, the 

 flowering glumes also cuspidate-awned, the cusps recurved. 



Common in waste places, roadsides etc., fl. all the year; widely dis- 

 tributed in the Philippines, probably of prehistoric introduction. A native 

 of the Old World where it is widely distributed, now extensively natural- 

 ized 'in the New World. 



42. LEPTOCHLOA Beauvois 



Annual, erect, usually tufted grasses with flat leaves, the slender, spike- 

 like panicle-branches racemosely arranged on the elongated rachis. Spike- 

 lets small, compressed, several-flowered, sessile or shortly pedicelled, 

 unilateral. Glumes 3 to many, thin, the first and second unequal, oblong 

 or lanceolate, 1-nerved, empty, the others ovate, acute or obtuse, 3-nerved. 

 Grain subglobose to obovoid, closely invested by the glume and palea. 

 (Greek "slender" and "grass.") 



Species about 15, tropical and subtropical, 2 in the Philippines. 



