*•] GRAMINE*. 425 



crowded the upper ones few, with long sheaths. Panicle narrow, 3 to 3 in. 

 long, glabrous except a short tuft of hairs under the spikelets. Outer glumes 

 ot the sessile spikelet about li lines long, with short points, the awn of the 

 lioivenng glume protruding to 3 or 4 lines. Male spikelets full 2 Knes long, 

 with longer points to the glumes, and no awns.— B&apMs triviaiis. Lour. PI. 

 (^001.553 JredropoffOft aciauUris, Retz; Kunth, Enum. i. 505. A. fRhaphis) 

 jmamcus, Nees in Steud, Syn. Gram. 896. ' ^ r y 



On roadsides, Wilford, Wright. Dispersed over India, from Ceylon and the Peninsula to 

 tne Archipelago, extending to Australia and the Pacific islands, and northward to the Philip- 

 pines and China. '- 



28. ISCH^MUM, Linn. • 



Spikelets in pairs, one sessile, 2-flowered, the lowest flower male, the other 

 pedicellate, usually male or mdimentary, in a simple spike or in the spike-like 

 sessile branches of a simple panicle, therhachis articulate, at least towards the 

 top. Outer glumes 2, stiff and awnless, the lowest with 2 prominent lateral 

 nerves, the second keeled. Flowering glumes and paleas smaller, thin and 

 transparent, all awnless or the glume of the terminal flower with a twisted 

 awn. 



A tropical or subtropical Asiatic and Australian genus. 

 Spikes simple, slender, unilateral, unawned. 



Outer glumes not winged, fringed with long bristles 1. Z leersioides. 



Outer glumes entire or minutely toothed, winged at the top . . . 2. I. ephiuroides. 

 Spikes rather thick,- divided into 3 erect branches,' with twisted awns . 3. /. barbatnm. 



1. I. leersioides, Munro in Proc. Amer. Acad. iv. 363. Stems tufted 

 and leafy at the base, ascending to 6 in. or 1 ft., rarely branched. Leaves 

 narrow, rather pointed. Spike solitary on a long peduncle, simple, slender, 1 

 to 1^ in. long and often cmTed. Outer glumes of the sessile spikelets ovate 

 and loosely imbricate on one side of the rhachis, 1|^ to 2 lines long, slightly 

 pubescent, scarcely obtuse, not winged but elegantly bordered by long spread- 

 ing bristles. Awns none. Pedicellate spikelet reduced to a short point on a 

 somewhat dilated pedicel. 



Hongkong, Hance ; in open places on the hills, Wilford. Also on the adjacent continent, 

 but not known out of S. China, unless it prove- to be a variety of the Indian /. pectinaium, 

 which has the outer glume winged as well as fringed. 



2. I. ophiuroides, Munro in Proc. Amer. Acad. iv. 363. A small 

 tufted grass like the last, but the leaves usually shorter and more obtuse. 

 Spikes l-j to 2 in. long, rather fii-mer than in /. leersioides, the outer glumes 

 of the sessile spikelets more closely imbricated, broader and more obtuse, 

 bordered at the top by a scarious wing, with a few minute tooth-Kke cDia 



- towards the base. Pedicellate spikelet reduced to an abortive glume on a flat 

 stiff green striated pedicel, as long as the fertile spikelet. 



Hongkong, Hance ; and in some other islands of the Canton river, but not known out of 

 S. China. 



3. I. barbatum, Betz; Kunth, Enum. i. 513. Stems ascending or erect, 

 branched, 1 to 2 ft. high, usually with tufts of short hairs at the nodes. 

 Leaves very pointed, the lower ones long. Spikes divided to the base into 

 3 erect branches 1^ to 2 in. long, the outer glumes, pedicels, and rhachis very 



