610 



Spec. Chae. Koot turfy or stoloniferous : culms creeping, com- 

 pressed, rooting, branoied and giving rise to new plants : leaves 

 distichous and witli the sheaths hairy: ligula ciliated: spikes 

 digitate, twin, in threes or fours, linear-smooth. 



Common throughout the country. It is known as the Doorha 

 and Hurryalee grass, especially noted as the chief food for cattle. 



(2) C. GEAcms. (Nees.) 



Ident. Nees MS.— Steudel 1. o. p. 213. 



Syn. Leptochloa gracilis, Wight, herb. 



Spec. Chab. Culm branched, very tender: leaves lanceolate, 

 thin : spikes several, racemose, filiform, lower ones sub-opposite : 

 upper glume Unear, lower oblong, long-subulate: lower valve 

 acute, villous at the edge and back. 



Peninsula. 



(3) C. vrEGATus. (Nees.) 

 Ident. Nees MS. — Steudel I. c. 



Spec. Chajb. Culm creeping at the base, ascending, branched: 

 leaves glabrous, upper sheaths somewhat viUous : racemes many, 

 racemose, lower ones sub-verticelled : spikelets glabrous : upper 

 glume and lower valve mucronulate behind the apex. 



Peninsula. 



aENUS XXXI. MELANOCENCHEIS. 

 Triandrla Digynia. Sex: Syst: 



Gen. Chae. Baceme slender, secund : spikelets 6 or 3-flowered, 

 approximately alternate on a short rhachis, showing an involucrated 

 capitulum : glumes in the lowest spikelets 2, equal, in the upper 

 ones one, bract-shaped, subulate, stiff, hirsute, longer than the 

 florets, membranous-margined ; florets 2, when the glume is single, 

 in the axil of the glume and rhachilla, one inner, perfect, sessile, 

 the other stamineous or neuter, jiediceUed ; third, when present, 

 rudimentary club-shaped : valves 2, lower 3-nerved, 2-cleft-subulate 

 at the apex, with a long intervening bristle 2-cleft at the apex : 

 upper floret conforming, less: scales short, somewhat square, 

 2-toothed : ovary oblong, smooth, compressed : styles long, filiform : 

 stigmas narrow, shortly puberulous : caryopsis free. 



(1) M. EoTHXANA. (Nees.) 

 Ident. Nees in Ann. Nat. Hist. vii. 221. — Dalz. 1. c. 297. 



