160 oLxxiii. GRAMiNBaj. (J, D. Hooker.) [Manisuris. 



Throughout the hotter parts of India, from the Panjab eastward to Burma, and 

 sdnthward to Cbilon. — Distbib. Most tropical countries. 



Stem l-2i ft. and leaves softly hairy, leafy to the top, as thick as a crow-quill. 

 Leaves 4^10 'by J-J in., flaccid, flat, acuminate; sheaths hirsute, inflated; lignlea 

 raised ciliate margin. Spikes i-1 in. ; peduncle filiform. Sessile spihelets -jL in. 

 diara., superposed like minute beads on the rachis, and each as it were braoteate by 

 the upper spikelet of the pair below it. 



2. K. porifera, HacJe. in CEstr. Sot. Zeitschr. xli. (1891) 48; sessile 

 spitelets broadly oblong trnucate deeply broadly pitted, gl. I 5-nerved 

 between transverse longitudinal ridges, II 3-nerved. 



SiKKiM HiMAlATA ; Dikeeling, alt. 3000 ft., Clarice. TenAsseeim, Selfer. 



Habit and foliage, &o. of M. granularis. Spilcelets -jV-to '"•> brownish ; eallns 

 smooth or foveolate ; gl. I excised at the base on both sides, leaving a rounded pore 

 between it and the rachis. — There Is a specimen of this in Herb. Wight, without 

 name or locality. 



48. OPKXURUS, Gmrtn. 



Annnal or perennial grasses. Spikes solitary or fascicled, terete, fragile ; 

 joints excavate, top concave. Spihelets 2-fld., solitary and sessile in the 

 joints (with no upper or pedicel of one), not awned. Glumes 4, I thickly 

 coriaceous, convex, obtuse ; II almost membranous, concave, keeled ; III 

 elliptic, obtuse, hyaline, faintly 2-nerved, margins infolded, paleate, male; 

 IV as long as III, oblong, obtuse, -nerved, paleate bisexual, palea narrow; 

 IV oblong, obtuse. Lodieules 2, cuneate. Sta/mens 3. Orain oblong, free. 

 — Species one or two. Tropical Asiatic and African. 



Ophmrus, as defined by Haokel and Bentham, is an artificial genus, of which the 

 original species, 0. corymiosus, has solitary sessile 2-fld. spikelets on each joint of 

 the spike, with no obvious traces of a second, by which character it differs from 

 Botthoellia. Of other Indian plants referred to it, 0. perforatus {Rottboellia per- 

 forata, Eoxb.) has 2 sessile 1-fld. spikelets on each joint of the spike, with a long 

 interposed pedicel of a second perfect or imperfect one. It is the genus Mnesithea 

 of Kunth. Two admitted species of 'Rottboellia have the same structure as 0. 

 perjoratus, namely, S. Mrsuta, Forsk., and R. geminata, Hack. These three should 

 form either a separate genus {MnesWhea), or a section of Rottboellia, which latter 

 course I have adopted. Hackel describes the joints of 0. eorymhosus as being 

 thickened on one side by the presence of the confluent pedicel of a second spikelet, 

 but I find no trace of this (nor can Dr. StapfJ, and he describes R. perforates as 

 with one sessile spikelet on each joint, or with two on the lower joints only; but I 

 find that in all the specimens two sessile spikelets is the normal condition almost 

 throughout the spikes, the uppermost joints alone having but one. 



O. corymbosus, O^rtn. f. Fruct. iii. 4, t. 181, f. 3 a (OpMuros) ; 

 Kunth Enum. PI. i. 464 ; Sack. Monogr. Androp. 317 ; Steud. Syn. Gram. 

 359; Wall. Oat. n. 8874; Wight Gat. n. 1723; Buthie Grass. N.W. Ird. 

 17, Fodd. Grass. N. Ind. 29, t. 55 ; Lishoa in Bomb. Joum. Nat. Hist. vi. 

 (1891) 193 ; Benth. Fl. Austral, vii. 512. Bottboellia corymbosa, Linn.f. 

 Suppl. 114; Boxh. PI. Oorom. ii. 42, t. 181, Fl. Ind. i. 355 ; Grah. Cat. 

 Bomb. PI. 233. E. punctata, Betz. Obs. iii. 11. iEgilops exaltata, Linn. 

 Mant. ii. App. 575 ; Betz. I. c. ii. 27. 



Dry hills, ascending to 3500 ft. in the Himalaya and Khasia Hilis, and 

 southward to the Decgan Pbniksula (not in Ceylon). — Distbib. Tonkin, Aus- 

 tralia. 



Perennial. Stems erect from a, tuberous babe, 5-6 ft., as thick as a goosc-quill 



