305 



30. PSILOSTACHYS, Steudel. 



1. P FiLiFORMis, Dalz. — One span high; culms several from 

 one root, geniculate below ; nodes slightly bearded ; sheaths smooth, 

 1 inch long ; leaves lanceolate-acuminate, 1 1 inch long, 2 lines 

 broad ; spikes 2 to 3, terminal, 1 inch long, slender, about 8-flower- 

 ed, dark-purple ; florets sessile, alternate on the rachis, which is 

 clothed with closely ad pressed whitish, stiff hairs ;, glumes muvi- 

 cated above, subequal, acute, hardish in fruit ; anthers 2, purple ; 

 palese much smaller than the glumes, upper one bifid, with a very 

 long awn rising from the base behind, lower mutic, narrow, slender 

 Mahableshwur. Syn. Andropogon filiformis, Roxb. 



31. ISCH^MUM, Linn. 



1. I PiLosuM, Wight Madr. Jour. Sc. No. 7. — Culms 4 to 5 

 feet high, smooth ; leaves glaucous, smooth, 8 to 9 inches long, 3 to 

 4 lines broad ; spikes terminal, fascicled, 3 to 4 together, 4 to 5 

 inches long, white, and hairy ; sessile spikelet with the lower flower 

 male, and the upper female, pedicelled floret female, all bearded 

 with long, white hairs, upper valve of the female floret awned ; 

 glumes all minutely bifid. A regularly dioecious species. One 

 of the greatest pests to agriculturists who love clean fields, from the 

 difficulty of eradicating it. Common in Deccan, where it is called 

 " Koonda" ; less common in Gujarat; delights in black soil. We 

 are strongly inclined to believe that this will be found identical 

 with the I latifolium, Kunth, a native of the west Indies and Brazil, 

 and also with the Spodiossogon of Siberia, as hinted by Nees. 



2. I RuGOSUM, Willd. sp. iv, 940. — Culm erect, branched ; 

 leaves lanceolate, smooth ; mouths of the sheaths crowned with a 

 long 2-parted ligula ; spikes terminal, and from the exterior axils 

 paired, erect, 2 to 3 inches long; rachis jointed; flowers in pairs, 

 one sessile, the other on a short, thick, angular clubbed pedicel ; 

 exterior glumes rugose and very hard ; inner palea of hermaphro- 

 dite flower with a long-twisted awn, from the middle of its back. 

 Gaert. Fr. iii, t. 181. We have a variety of this with the pedi- 

 celled spikelet having 1 male and 1 female floret, without awns, 

 whereas this has 2 male florets with 1 awn. 



3. I CoNjUGATUM, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. — Culms branched, creep- 

 ing at the base, filiform, 6 to 1 8 inches long ; sheaths smooth ; leaves 

 short, acute, with a cordate base ; sJDikes on a clavate peduncle, 

 conjugately united ; rachis hairy and articulated ; flowers in pairs, 

 on each spike 4 to 8, one sessile, the other subsessile ; glumes of 

 both spikelets woolly, sessile, floret with an awn. Syn. Andropo- 

 gon cordatifolius, SteudpJ. 



39 c 



