Rottboellia.] 
CLVII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
73 
obtuse or subobtuse ; upper boat-shaped, keeled upwards, acute. 
Valves hyaline, 3-nerved. Valvules as long or almost as long as 
the valves, hyaline, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3. 
Stigmas suberect or shortly laterally exserted above the middle of 
the spikelet. Grain broad-oblong or ellipsoid, dorsally compressed ; 
hilum large, suprabasal ; embryo almost as long as the grain. Pedi- 
celled spikelet similar to the sessile, but more compressed, green, 
striate, with 2 $ florets, or smaller and more or less reduced. — 
Annual, usually coarse grasses, often with stilt-roots from the lowest 
nodes, more or less branched, particularly upwards ; blades large, 
linear-lanceolate, rather wide ; ligule membranous, short ; racemes 
dorsiventral, with the spikelets placed anticously and laterally ; the 
barren terminal appendages often very slender and their imperfect 
spikelets very narrow, green. 
Species 2 or 3, very closely allied ; in the tropics of the Old World. 
1. R. exaltata, Linn. f. Suppl. 114. Culms erect, up to 12 ft. 
high, branched, with the branches more or less erect, smooth or 
more or less rough and even hirsute, terete, with a channel facing 
the branches. Leaf-sheaths terete, tight, or widened upwards, 
usually more or less hirsute, with tubercle-based hairs, sometimes 
quite glabrous, strongly striate, ciliolate ; ligules membranous, 
brown, short, rounded, ciliolate ; blades linear-lanceolate, tapering to 
a long fine point, 1-lf ft. long, J-l in. wide, somewhat flaccid, 
giaucescent, smooth below, scabrid with minute stiff hairs above, 
very rough along the margins, midrib rather stout below, whitish, 
primary lateral nervfes about 4-6 on each side. Racemes 3-6 in. 
long, 1-1J lin. in diam., stiff, pale yellowish-green, joints 2-3 lin. 
long, rounded on the back, concave on the inner face, smooth, dis- 
articulating with an almost orbicular scar ; pedicels slightly shorter 
than the joints, broad, rounded on the back, concave on the inner 
face. Sessile spikelet 2j-3f lin. long, including the short broad 
smooth callus ovate-lanceolate, glabrous. Glumes about equal, lower 
coriaceous, subacute, entire or very minutely 2-toothed, smooth 
or very slightly rough, intracarinal nerves faintly visible on the 
inner side, about 9 ; upper glume boat-shaped, very broad in pro- 
file, obliquely acute, about 11-nerved. Lower floret : valve oblong- 
lanceolate, acute, glabrous, with a valvule similar in shape and size, 
but firmer, rigid and 2-nerved. Upper floret : valve slightly shorter 
than that of the lower floret, boat-shaped, obliquely ovate in profile ; 
valvule narrowly oblong, nerveless, almost as long as the valve. 
Anthers 1-1J lin. long. Styles almost 1 fin. long. Grain up to 
1J lin. by 1 lin., pale. Pedicelled spikelet about the size of the 
sessile, but more compressed, and (particularly the upper) more or 
less acuminate, green-striate and with 2 male florets, or more or less 
reduced, the upper consisting of one glume only. — Roxb. PL Corom. 
t. 157 ; Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 361 ; Baker, FI. Maur. 457 ; Hack. 
