RotiboelKa] GLIII. GRAMINE Jl. 1859 



a large terminal leafy panicle, each branch within a sheathing bract, and a narrow 

 sheathing bract on each peduncle. Spikes slender, simple, 2 to Sin. long, quite 

 glabrous and very brittle. Spikelets IJ to 2 lines long, both the sessile and the 

 pedicellate ones with a hermaphrodite flower, or the pedicellate with a male flower 

 or reduced to empty glumes. Glumes all obtuse, awnless and smooth, the outer 

 one with the marginal nerves, and the 2nd with the keel winged at the top as in 

 Ischeemum. — Bail. 111. Mono. Gr. Q. i. ; Ischcemum rottboellioides, R. Br. Prod. 205 ; 

 Andropogon 7-ottboellioide/>, Steud. Syn. Glum. i. 382 ; F. v. M. Fragm. viii. 123 

 (exol. syn. Eetz and Brongn.) 

 Hab.: Gulf of Carpentaria, B. Brown ; Eookingliani Bay, Dallachy ; Broaclsound, Bowman. 



39. MANISURIS, Swartz. 



(Said to be from the inflorescence resembling a lizard's tail.) 



Spikelets in pairs in the 1-sided notches of the articulate rhachis of a simple 

 spike, 1 sessile and half imbedded in a cavity on the rhachis with 1 hermaphro- 

 dite flower, the other on an appressed pedicel reduced to 2 empty glumes, the 

 spike single on the peduncle above a sheathing bract. Glumes of the sessile 

 spikelet 4, the outer one the largest, globular and hard, covering the cavity of 

 the rhachis, the 2nd smaller, concave, thin but rigid, 3rd and 4th small thin and 

 hyaline. Palea none (or very minute ?). Styles distinct. Grain enclosed in the 

 hard outer glumes, free from them. 



The genus is now generally reduced to the single species, widely spread over the warmer 

 regions of the New and the Old World. 



1. IKE. granulans (grain-like), Sit.; Eunth, Emm. i. 469; BentJi. Fl. 

 Aiistr. vii. 511. A branching leafy annual of 1ft. or more, sprinkled or villous 

 with spreading hairs, the leaf-sheaths usually hispid, the floral leaves generally 

 exceeding the enclosed sheathing bracts and spikes, and the narrow sheathing 

 bracts on the separate peduncles as long as or longer than the spikes, the whole 

 inflorescence forming an irregular leafy panicle. Spikes mostly about |in. long. 

 Spikelets scarcely more than i line diameter, the prominent grain-like hard and 

 pitted outer glumes alone conspicuous, and appearing in a single row on one side 

 of the rhachis. — Beauv. Agrost. t. 21, f. 10. 



Hab.: Bowen. 



40. HEMARTHRIA, R. Br. 

 (Half-jointed ; referring to the spike.) 



Spikelets in pairs, in the alternate notches of a simple spike, 1 sessile and 

 half embedded in a cavity of the scarcely articulate rhachis with 1 hermaphrodite 

 flower, the other on a closely appressed and often adnate pedicel reduced to 2 or 

 3 empty glumes, the spikes single on each peduncle above a sheathing bract and 

 often flattened. Glumes in the sessile spikelet 4, the outer one appressed and 

 covering the cavity of the rhachis, the 2nd thinner and concave or keeled, the 3rd 

 and 4th and the palea in the 4th thin and hyaline. Styles distinct. Grain 

 enclosed in the glumes but free from them. 



A small genus of closely allied species, widely spread over the warmer regions of the globe 

 especially on the sea-coasts of the Old World. 



1. H. compressa (compressed), E. Br. Prod. 207 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 

 510. Stems decumbent or creeping at the base, rather rigid, ascending to 1ft. or 

 rather more, slightly branched. Leaves narrow, glabrous or the lower ones 

 sprinkled with a few long hairs. Spikes solitary on the branches or nearly so, 

 more or less compressed, rigid, 3 to Sin. long, often 1| line broad. Spikelets 

 all closely appressed, 3 to 3^ lines long. Outer glume many-nerved, tapering into 

 a very variable point, sometimes very short and straight especially in the sessile 



