452 GRAMiNEiE. [. Eleusine . 
bricated, erecto-patent. Trin. Ic. t. 71, and a short-spiked variety, 
Trin. Ic. t. 72. 
Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Seychelles, common at all elevations. Every- 
where in the two warmer zones. Chiendent patte de poules. 
19. CTENIUM, Panz. 
Spikelets 3-4-flowered, densely crowded in second usually soli- 
tary spikes. Lowest flower of the spikelet in our plant alone 
hermaphrodite, the three upper more or less imperfect. Empty 
glumes unequal, lanceolate, membranous. Flowering glume firm in 
texture, lanceolate, strongly keeled, the keel running out below the tip 
into a long awn ; pale smaller and less firm in texture. Hypogynous 
scales 2. Stamens 3. Stigmas plumose, spreading laterally. Grain small, 
free. — Tufted erect grasses, with narrow leaves and long flexuose 
tightly-packed usually solitary spikes. Distrib. Tropical America 
and Tropical Africa, not Asia. Species 10. 
1. C. sechellense, Baker. Densely tufted, with erect glabrous 
slender stems 2 feet high. Leaves few ; upper sheaths 4-5 in. long, 
with a tuft of hairs at the throat ; blade narrow linear, acuminate, gla- 
brous, glaucous, \ foot long. Spikes solitary, 5-6 in. long ; spikelets 
erecto-patent, much imbricated, biserial on a slender triquetrous 
straight rachis. Outer empty glume in. long, cuspidate; inner much 
smaller. Flowers with a tuft of hairs at the base. Flowering glume of 
hermaphrodite flower £ in. long, the awn 2-3 times its length. 
Awns of imperfect flowers shorter and of the uppermost not de- 
veloped. 
Seychelles, common, Horne, 632 ! Endemic. 
20. DACTYLOCTENIUM, Willd. 
Spikelets densely packed in digitate unilateral spikes, 3-5-flowered, 
the upper flowers imperfect. Empty glumes unequal, the inner ovate, 
minute, the outer coriaceous, linear-subulate, nearly as long as the 
spikelet. Flowering glume oblong, deeply boat-shaped, with a hairy 
keel, which runs out into a point ; pale much narrower. Hypogynous 
scales glabrous. Stamens 3. Stigmas spreading, plumose ; styles short. 
Grain small, free, angular. — Small annual grasses, with linear leaves. 
Distrib. Spread through all warm regions. Species perhaps one only. 
1. D. segyptiacum, Willd. ; KuntJi, Enum. i. 261. Annual, with 
often a creeping rootstock, rooting at the nodes. Stems ascending, |-2 
feet long. CT pper sheaths 1-2 in. long, densely pilose at the throat ; 
blade linear, acute, 1-6 in. long, often loosely pilose. Spikes 4-8, 1-2 
in. long, the spikelets spreading horizontally from a slender rigid tri- 
quetrous rachis, usually produced into a sharp point at the top. 
