Apluda.] 
CLVII. GrRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
41 
spikelet reduced to a short striate glume, continuing the pedicel. — 
Hook. f. FI. Brit. Ind. vii. 150 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 
696. Apluda aristata, Linn. Cent. ii. 71 ; Schreber, Beschr. d. Graes. 
93. t. 42 ; Beauv. Agrost. 133 ; Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 403 ; Duthie, 
Fodder Grasses of N. India, 44. t. 29. A. Gryllus, Beauv. Agrost., 
Explic. planches, 15, t. 23. f. 5 (by error 6). 
Nile Land. Island of Socotra : Balfour, 229 ! Tamarid, Schweinfurth, 344 ! 
Throughout tropical and sub-tropical Asia ; also in Mauritius : according 
to Duthie ( l.c .) a fairly good fodder when young. 
8. VOSSIA, Wall, et Griff. : Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 1131. 
Spikelets 2-nate, those of each pair alike in shape and sex (or the 
pedicelled $ ), on the moderately fragile articulate rhachis of digitate, 
rarely solitary, spike-like racemes, the sessile separating only very 
tardily together with the contiguous joint of the rhachis and the 
pedicel ; joint and pedicel slightly gaping. Florets 2, lower 8, upper 
£ , or sometimes £ in the pedicelled spikelets. Glumes unequal ; the 
lower coriaceous, flat on the back, produced into a long tail-like 
acumen, 2-keeled, narrowly indexed along the margins ; upper boat- 
shaped, chartaceous, keeled. Valves hyaline, of lower floret 2- 
nerved, of upper faintly 3-nerved. Valvules 2-nerved. Lodicules 
2, large, broadly cuneate. Stamens 3. Stigmas linear, laterally 
exserted. Grain unknown.' — Perennial, from a rooting base, often 
floating ; blades long and flat ; ligules membranous, ciliate ; racemes 
subterete or more or less compressed ; joints compressed below, 
widened above ; pedicels similar but narrower and flatter. 
Species 1, in Tropical Africa and India. 
1. V. cuspidata, Griff. Notul. iii., Index, 12 ; Ic. PI. Asiat. t. 153. 
Perennial. Culms submerged or floating, copiously rooting from the 
submerged nodes, as thick as the finger below, very many-noded, 
terete, perfectly smooth and glabrous, branching below, the aerial 
part up to over 3 ft. high. Leaf-sheaths glabrous and smooth or 
more or less scaberulous with small tubercle-based hairs, tight or 
the lower somewhat loose, mostly exceeding the internodes ; ligules 
very short, truncate ; blades linear, long-tapering to a fine point, 
up to 3 ft. long, by § to almost 1 in. wide, convolute in vernation, 
then flat, rather rigid, rough on both sides, glaucous, glabrous, mid- 
rib very stout below, in the larger leaves rounded on the back, white 
and channelled above, with numerous fine lateral nerves. Bacemes 
pale green or straw-coloured, solitary or 2-6 on a short common axis, 
opposite, 6-9 in. long, erect, rigid or slightly nodding, stout ; joints 
about 4 lin. long, more or less convex or almost flat on the back, 
scabrid along the angles, disarticulating horizontally ; pedicels as 
long as the joints or slightly longer, scabrid along the angles. Sessile 
spikelets with a narrow constricted callus, ovate-oblong, without the 
