495 
Pseudeckinolcena .] clvjx cIraminr.® (Stapf). 
equally long and almost as long as the spikelet, or the lower distinctly 
shorter, heteromorphous ; lower more or less fiat, 3-nerved, always 
smooth or almost so, upper boat-shaped, gibbous downwards, 
7-nerved, with longitudinal rows of more or less transparent spots 
glands ”) between the nerves and with or without shorter or longer 
stout hooked hairs or bristles from the centre of the spots. Lower 
lloret as long as the spikelet : valve oblong-lanceolatc with a minutely 
truncate tip, laterally compressed but rounded on the back, char- 
taceous, with membranous margins and a delicate hyaline area at 
the base, smooth ; valvule almost as long as the valve, more or 
less convolute, faintly 2-nerved. Upper floret : valve broad- 
lancedlate to oblong, subacute, very convex on the back, chartaceous, 
faintly 5-nerved ; valvule similar to the valve in texture, tightly 
clasped by it when mature. Lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3. 
Styles free at the base, capillary ; stigmata plumose, subterminally 
exserted. Grain oblong in face-view, semi-obovate in profile, back 
very convex ; scutellum elliptic, almost half the length of the grain ; 
liilum subbasal, punctiform. — Annual, with very slender culms with 
a prostrate rooting base ; leaf-blades lanceolate, soft ; spikelets 
very irregularly armed or quite unarmed. 
Species 1, in the tropics of both hemispheres. 
Echinolama, under which this species was originally described, and to which 
it has been referred back again by Hitchcock and A. Chase (see below), is an 
exclusively American genus which differs from Pseudechinolcena in manv 
respects, as in its 'densely packed spikes, the many-nerved lower glume, the 
“ eglandular always unarmed upper glume, the uniformly papery 5-nerved 
lower valve which is accompanied by a sharply 2- keeled flat valvule, the basally 
appendaged fertile valve and the acutely auricled or toothed flaps of its valvule, 
and finally the flatter grain which is marked with a panduriform line on the 
f £tce extending through its full length and possesses a slender linear hilum. 
(H.'P.K.) 
1. P. polystachya^ Stapf. Rising to more than 1 ft. above the 
ground, the prostrate portion often up to a foot long with numerous 
short or long branches, growing into secondary culms, their bases 
often finely filiform, stronger upwards, all many-noded and rooting 
from the nodes near the ground ; erect or ascending portion above 
the last branch 5-8-noded with as many perfect leaves ; internodes 
exserted, terete, glabrous. Leaf-sheaths tight, terete, strongly 
striate, more or less appressedly hairy and ciliate along the margin 
or only ciliate ; ligules thin, membranous, rounded or truncate, 
ciliola,te, under 1 lin. long ; blades lanceolate from a shortly con- 
tracted or rounded and usually slightly oblique base, acutely 
acuminate, from less than J in. (lowest) to up to over 2J in. by 2-6 
lin., dark green, glabrous, with scattered or very fine stiff hairs above, 
finely and appressedly pubescent underneath, midrib verv fine, 
whitish or straw-coloured ; lateral nerves fine, numerous, crowded. 
Inflorescence up to over 6 in. long, with up to 6 or even 8 racemes, 
mostly much shorter and with fewer racemes, occasionally reduced 
