( 55 ) 



long, edges of leaves and their sheaths ciliate. Spikelets in separate 

 clusters, directed to one side of the curved common peduncle. Empty 

 glumes densely hairy below, and awned. 



A diminutive and very elegant grass, not uncommon in sandy or stony 

 ground in Northern India. It is said to be a good grazing grass when 

 young, though rather too small to be of much account. 



57. TETRAPOGON, Desfi There are 4 species, one of which 

 is plentiful in certain parts of Northern India. In general appearance 

 it resembles a Chloris, but the spikelets are 3-4-flowered ; whilst in 

 Chloris they are only 1-flowered. The spikes are erect, 1-3, and covered 

 with long silky hairs. Flowering glumes awned. 



T. villosus, Desf. {Plate LXVIII.) Syn.— Chloris villosa, Pers. 

 Vern. — Punjab : Khera-madhana and sager (Salt Range) ; Rajputana : 

 Kalia (Ajmere) ; N.-W. Prov. : Phulni (Etah), Jcokuna (Cawnpore) ; 

 Cent. Pro v. : Phundra jadi (Seoni). 



Perennial, casspitose. Stems erect, upper parts rather free of foliage. 

 Leaves glabrous, narrowly linear. Spikes in pairs, often coalescing so 

 as to appear single. Spikelets 4-5-flowered. Lower glume acute, 

 upper mucronate from a rounded apex ; flowering glume obovate, obtuse, 

 with long silky hairs from the back, with an awn twice as long as itself 

 springing from just below the obtuse or retuse apex. 



Common on sterile land in the plains of Northern India, and consider- 

 ed to be a good fodder grass at Ajmere. It is very abundant on some 

 of the saline usar tracts in the Doab, frequently constituting the sole 

 vegetation, but usually selecting less infected patches than those occu- 

 pied by the true usar grass, Sporobolus orientalis. 



58. DINEBRA, Jacq. This genus contains a single species, which 

 is confined to tropical Africa and Northern India. Spikes several, scat- 

 tered along the peduncle. Spikelets 2-3-flowered. Flowering glumes 

 bluntish, much shorter than the somewhat awned lower empty ones. 



D. arabiea, Beauv* Syn. — D. retroflexa, Panz. ; D. cegyptiaca, 

 Jacq. ; Leptochloa arabica, Kunth ; Cynosurus retroflexus, Vahl ; Dacty 

 lis paspaloides, Willd. ; Eleusine calycina, Roxb. Vern. — Cent. Prov.: 

 Bara sarpot (Chanda), maljhanji (Seoni) ; Teling : Wadata-toka gaddee 

 (Roxb.). 



Annual. Stems erect or prostrate, 1-3 feet, leafy at the base. Pan- 

 icle narrow ; spikes numerous, alternate, often reflexed, reddish when 

 young. Spikelets 3-flowered ; outer glumes equal, longer than the flow- 

 ering glumes. 



* See Plate F., Fig, 28, of present Volume. 



