366 OLxxiii. SEAMiNE^. (J. D. Hooker.) [Lepiurus. 



flexaoas, flattened, margins cilinte with long strict hairs '; sheath very short ; ligale 

 minute, 2-auricled. Spikes 2-3 in., as long as the filiform pedicels and hardly 

 stouter, strict, erect. Spi&elets -^J^ in. 2-fld., both fl. bisexual (always?); gl. I 

 sunk in the hollow of the rachis, obliquely ovate, l-Aerred, hyaline ; II liuear-oblong, 

 acnte, coriaceous, dorsally smooth, convex with a broad undefined midrib; III 

 hyaline, distinctly S-nerved, oblong, truncate, callus penicillate; palea hyaline, 

 keels smooth ; IV narrower than III ; rachilla slender, penicillate. Lodiciules minute. 

 Anthers very short; filaments long. Ova/ri/ short; styles short, bases remote, 

 divergent. — There is in Roxburgh's unedited Icones au excellent drawing of a small 

 state of this plant, of which I have no specimen but Mr. Duthie's; it is no doubt 

 overlooked from its small size and habit. 



127. OXtOPETZITK, Trin. 



A very small densely tufted erect annual. Leaves filiform. Spikelets 

 very minute, 1-fld., half immersed in the alternating distichous cavities of 

 the rachis of asimple slender curved inarticulate spike ; rachilla bearded. 

 Glumes I and II empty, persistent, I very minute, hyaline ; II Knear- 

 lanceolate, rigid, recurved in fruit, tip obtuse or emarginate; III shorter, 

 broader, hyaline, obtuse or truncate, 1-nerved; palea narrow, keels smooth. 

 Lodicules ? Stamens 3. Styles short. Orain oblong, terete, free. 



Nardus stricta, Linn., is, according to Stewart, " Panjab Plants," p. 257, a native 

 of the Trans-Indus district, and at a considerable elevation in the Jhelum basin. 

 This is no doubt an error. Boissier gives as its Eastern limit, the Caucasus. 



O. Thomaeum, 2Vm. Fund. Agrost. 98, t. 3; Kunth Enum. PI. i. 

 464, Buppl. 375 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 403 ; TAw. Enum. PL Zeyl. 363 ; 

 Trim. Cat. Ceyl. PI. 110; Wall. Gat. n. 8869; Wight Cat. n. 1727; 

 DviUe Grass. N.W. Ind. 45, Fodd. Grass. N. Ind. 69. Eottboellia 

 Thorasea, Xoenig in Naturf. xxiii. (1786) 210; Willd. Sp. PL i. 464: Boxb. 

 Pi. Coram, ii. 17, t. 133, FL Ind. i. 367 ; Dalz. & Gibs. Bomb. FL 300. 

 R. pilosa, Willd. I. c. 465. Nardus Thomsea, Linn. f. Suppl. 105 ; Sm. in 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. i. 116. 



Plaiks OF India ; from the Panjab to Bengal, Burma, and southward in the 

 Wbstekm Peninsula. Ceylon, Gardner. 



Whole plant 2-3 in. high, forming hard tufts, stems compressed. Leaiies J-1 in., 

 erect, margins ciliate with long strict hairs ; sheath short, open ; ligule lacerate, not 

 auricled. Spikes\-1.^ in., about -^^ in. diam., solitary or fascicled on very short 

 branches, curved ; rachis undulating, green, tetragonous, with a broad central nerve 

 on the flat faces. Spikelets -^ in., closely appressed to the rachis in the hollow of 

 which the minute gl. I is sunk ; gl. II slightly convex with a broad thickened 

 centre; III semicircular in profile, excessively membranous, keel most minutely 

 scabrid. 



128. TRZTICUia, Linn. 



Annual or biennial grasses. Leaves flat. Spikelets few-fld., tumid, 

 sessile, distichously spicate, solitary, with their sides opposite cavities in 

 the articulate or in.-irticulate rachis ; upper fl. male or neuter. Glumes 

 rigid, often unequal-sided, I and II empty, obtuse or shortly awne^l, few- 

 nerved, persistent ; Hg. gls. oblong or ventricose, dorsally rounded or keeled 

 above, awnless or 1-3-awned, o-9-nerved, lateral nerves not conniving with 

 the central ; keels of palea ciliate. Lodicules entire, ciliate. Stamens 3. 

 Styles very short. Grain grooved ventrally, often hairy, free or adherent 

 to the palea. — Species about 10, Oriental and Eastern Asiatic. 



