Fig. 138.—Eremochloa muricata.
A. Sessile spikelet; B. sessile and a pedicelled spikelet;
1, 2, 3 and 4. the first, second, third and the fourth glume
of the sessile spikelet; 3a and 4a. palea of the third and
fourth glumes of the sessile spikelet; 5. ovary, anthers and
lodicules.
The pedicelled spikelet is reduced to an inflated body, as long as the sessile spikelet. It is pointed towards both ends, green with anastomosing veins on the outside and membranous, white and nerveless on the other side. The part of the pedicelled spikelet corresponding to the spikelet looks as if the margins of the first and second glumes are confluent all round.
Distribution.—South India and Ceylon.
These are annual or perennial grasses with slender stems. The spikes are compressed, 2- to 3-nate, or solitary at the ends of slender branches, with a rachis not jointed; joints are short, slender and villous. Spikelets are closely imbricating in two series, sessile, solitary, the upper reduced to a small pedicel 1- to 2-flowered, the lowest few on the spike, imperfect, male or neuter. There are four glumes. The first glume is large, broadly obovate or obcordate, cuneate, villous with brown hairs, 7- to 9-nerved. The second glume is as long as the first, but narrower, thinner, oblong to ovate, spikelet truncate and 3-nerved. The third glume is hyaline, narrow, paleate, male or empty. The fourth glume is hyaline, linear, entire or 2-fid, awned, bisexual with a very short palea. Lodicules are absent. Stamens are two or three with linear anthers. Styles are short and stigmas slender and exserted. The grain is small, oblong and narrow.
Fig. 139.—Apocopis Wightii.
This is a low and densely tufted or tall erect annual grass. Stems are leafy, branching freely, 3 to 8 inches long.
The leaf-sheath is loose, usually hairy, rarely also glabrous and hairy at the mouth. The ligule is a small lacerate membrane.
The leaf-blade is linear-lanceolate, acuminate, hairy on both sides and with tubercle-based hairs, rarely glabrous, 3/4 to 3 inches by 1/12 to 1/8 inch.
The inflorescence consists of two racemes, closely appressed together on a very slender peduncle; the joints are shorter than the spikelets and with long brown hairs.
The spikelets are oblong, 1/8 to 1/5 inch long, the callus is short, hairy with long brown hairs. The first glume is cuneately obovate or obcordate, yellowish with red brown tips or dark brown with yellow tips, chartaceous below, membranous, hyaline and ciliate at the truncate, emarginate or retuse apex, 7- to 9-nerved, the nerves abruptly ceasing towards the apex. The second glume is as long as the first, broadly oblong, sides sharply folded inwards, 3-nerved, rarely nerveless, with long hairs at the back towards the base and with short cilia at the apex. The third glume is as long as the first, hyaline, thin, linear-oblong, nerveless, ciliate at the apex, paleate, usually with two stamens or empty; palea as long as the glume, hyaline and nerveless. The fourth glume is slightly longer than the other glumes or equal, very narrowly oblong or linear, membranous, awned and paleate; awn is 2 to 6 times the length of the glume, 7/8 to 1-1/4 inch long; palea is hyaline, thin, nerveless, convolute, broadly oblong to almost quadrate oblong, apex with very short cilia. Grain is minute and oblong.
Fig. 140.—Apocopis Wightii.
1. Spike; 2. a spikelet; 3, 4, 5 and 7. the first, second, third
and the fourth glume, respectively; 6 and 8. palea of the
third and the fourth glume; 9. ovary.
This grass varies very much in its spikelets. In one form they are smaller and hairy and in the other they are larger and glabrous except for a few stray hairs here and there. The former one is more widely distributed and the latter seems to be confined to certain localities in the south of the Presidency.
Distribution.—Throughout the Deccan Peninsula, Behar, Central India, Burma and Ceylon.
These are small densely tufted perennial grasses, with very narrow leaves. The spikes are very short at the ends of very fine branches, solitary, binate or fascicled, with very fragile rachis; joints are very short, slender with cupular tips. The spikelets are binate one sessile and the other shortly pedicelled, with the callus villous. There are four glumes. The first glume (of both the sessile and the pedicelled spikelets) is oblong, truncate, irregularly 3- to 4-toothed, 5- to 7-nerved and dorsally convex. The second glume is narrow lanceolate, longer than the first, 3- to 5-nerved, hispidly villous dorsally below the middle and on the sides, aristate or awned. The third glume is oblong lanceolate, hyaline, acute or aristate, 1-nerved, male or neuter, with a linear palea. The fourth glume is hyaline, as long as the third, entire or 2-fid and awned in the pedicelled and not awned in sessile spikelets, paleate with female or bisexual flowers. Lodicules are not present. Stamens are two. Stigmas are long.
This is a small annual grass with slender, tufted, erect stems varying in height from 4 to 12 inches.
Leaf-sheaths are glabrous or with scattered hairs. The ligule is a fringe of close-set long hairs. Nodes are covered with long hairs below, but nodes nearer the inflorescence are glabrous.
Leaf-blades are very finely linear, acuminate, rigid, erect, glabrous below, with long hairs on the upper surface to about quarter the length of the blade and densely hairy near the mouth, and varying in length from 2 to 6 inches.
The inflorescence consists of usually two closely appressed spikes, though appearing as one, 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, pilose with ferrugineous hairs; the peduncle is capillary and enclosed by the upper leaf-sheath.
Fig. 141.—Lophopogon tridentatus.
1. Awnless lower spikelet; 2. a lower sessile and an upper pedicelled spikelet;
3. the first glume of an awnless lower spikelet; 4. the first glume of a lower spikelet
that is awned; 5. the first, glume of the upper or pedicelled spikelets; 6, 7 and 9. the
second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the upper pedicelled spikelets; 8
and 10. palea of the third and the fourth glumes; 11. ovary and anthers.
The spikelets are densely imbricate, binate at each joint, the upper being shortly pedicelled and the lower sessile or subsessile. The lower spikelets are 1/5 inch long with a tuft of brownish hairs at the tip of the callus. The lower spikelets at the very base of the inflorescence are awnless and contain only two male flowers, whereas those above in the inflorescence are awned and contain one male flower and one hermaphrodite or female flower.
There are four glumes in the spikelet. The first glume in the awnless spikelets is coriaceous, oblong, cuneate, very sparsely hairy or glabrous, shorter than the second glume, 7-nerved, 5-toothed at the apex, two teeth being broader and shorter and three sharper and longer. The second glume is longer than the first, 1/5 inch long, sub-chartaceous, lanceolate, 3-nerved, 2-fid at the tip and awned or aristate, margin hyaline and with long brownish hairs on the marginal nerves. The third glume is hyaline, a little shorter than the second, lanceolate-linear, tip bifid or irregularly toothed, paleate with two stamens or rarely empty; the palea is linear, about as long as the glume, tip irregularly toothed. The fourth glume is hyaline, as long as the third glume, 2-fid at the tip, awnless with a very minute arista in the cleft or not, paleate with two stamens; palea narrow and hyaline. The first glume of the lower spikelets above is somewhat narrower, 5- or 3-toothed with long hairs at the margins and with tufts of hairs at the back about the middle. The pedicelled or upper spikelets also have four glumes and bear one male flower and one bisexual flower. The first glume is shorter than the second glume, narrow, oblong, cuneate, 3-toothed with marginal hairs and tufts of hairs at about the middle at the back, 7-nerved all nerves running straight. The second glume is longer than the first, 1/5 inch long, sub-chartaceous, lanceolate, 2-fid at the tip, awned with hyaline margins, 3- to 7-nerved, marginal nerves with long brown hairs, and also with two tufts of hairs at about the middle or without it. The third glume is hyaline, nerveless, linear-lanceolate, shorter than the second glume, tip irregularly toothed or unequally bifid, paleate with two stamens; palea is linear about as long as the glume. The fourth glume is hyaline, about 1/6 inch long, lanceolate, 2-fid at the tip, awned in the cleft, lobes are hairy; awn is 3/4 inch long, paleate, usually bisexual, rarely female; palea is two-thirds of the glume in height, broadly ovate or quadrate, lobulate at the apex. Styles are very long, purple, anthers long, yellow. Grain narrow ellipsoidal or cylindric as long as the palea.
This grass is found in Chingleput, Nellore and Chittoor districts in open waste places in loamy soils.
Distribution.—The Konkan, Kanara and Central Provinces.
These are tall leafy slender perennial grasses, with branching stems erect or geniculately ascending from a creeping or decumbent base. The inflorescence is a leafy panicle of many small spikes enclosed in spathiform bracts. Spikes are of one linear joint gibbously bulbous at the base, and jointed on the peduncle at the base of the spathe by a minute curved pedicel. Spikelets are three, a sessile, 2-flowered bisexual one in front, and two pedicelled ones behind, one of which is imperfect and reduced to a glume and the other perfect male or rarely bisexual. The two pedicels are flat, prolonged from one side of the rounded rachis, oblong linear, truncate with a few long hairs along the margin. Sessile spikelets have four glumes. The first glume is chartaceous, linear oblong, many-nerved, shortly bifid at the apex, longer than the other glumes. The second glume is thinner, dorsally gibbous, keeled, 5- to 9-nerved, beaked and minutely bifid. The third glume is hyaline, oblong, acute, 3-nerved, paleate and male. The fourth glume is hyaline, deeply bifid, awned in the sinus, bisexual with a minute palea. The pedicelled spikelet has also four glumes. The first and the second glumes are nearly equal, rather chartaceous. linear-oblong, acute or acuminate, many-nerved. The third glume is hyaline, oblong-lanceolate, 3-nerved, paleate and male. The fourth glume is hyaline, bifid, paleate, 1-nerved, female or bisexual. Lodicules are two. Stamens are three. Grain is oblong.
This is a tall leafy perennial grass with wiry roots. Stems are densely tufted, branched, geniculately ascending, erect or the branches scandent, solid, smooth and polished, 1 to 7 feet.
The leaf-sheath is glabrous or slightly hairy, the upper ones being shorter and dilated into spathes with subulate tips. The ligule is a short stiff slightly lacerate membrane.
The leaf-blade is linear-lanceolate, finely acuminate, base narrowed into a petiole, scaberulous on both the surfaces.
The inflorescence consists of simple spikes, each in a spathiform bract, and forming clusters terminating the stem and the branches. The spikes have their bases rounded and swollen and each spike consists of a sessile bisexual spikelet and two flat linear, truncate, parallel pedicels, one terminated by a spikelet, and the other by a solitary minute glume. Spathes are 1/8 to 1/3 inch long, sessile or pedicellate, green, cymbiform, with subulate tips.
Fig. 142.—Apluda varia.
A. A cluster of spikes containing five spikes with their spathes; B and C. spikes.
The sessile as well as the pedicelled spikelets have four glumes. The sessile spikelets are 1/8 to 1/5 inch long. The first glume is spreading or erect, chartaceous, many-nerved, two-toothed at the apex and with narrow hyaline margins from about the middle to the apex. The second glume is compressed, dorsally gibbous, keeled, 7-nerved. The third glume is hyaline, oblong-lanceolate, 3-nerved, paleate with three stamens; palea is narrow. The fourth glume is shorter than the third, deeply 2-fid and awned in the cleft, bisexual or female, 3- to 5-nerved below the cleft, the lateral nerves arching and meeting the mid-nerve just at the cleft, with a small ovate palea. There are two lodicules. The pedicelled spikelets are dorsally compressed. The first glume is lanceolate, oblong, subacute, many-nerved, coriaceous and glabrous. The second glume is as long as the first, many-nerved, lanceolate-oblong, coriaceous and glabrous. The third glume is hyaline, shorter than the second, 3-nerved, paleate and with three stamens. The fourth glume is shorter than or equal to the third, hyaline, 1-nerved rarely with two short lateral nerves, female or imperfect. Lodicules are two.
A very common grass occurring in the plains and lower hills, all over the Presidency and grows well in all kinds of soil.
Distribution.—All over India.
Fig. 143.—Apluda varia.
1, 2, 3 and 4. The first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the
sessile spikelet; 3a and 4a. are the palea of the third and the fourth glume, respectively;
5. stamens, ovary and lodicules; 6, 7, 8 and 10. the first, second, third and the fourth
glume, respectively, of the pedicelled spikelet; 9 and 11. palea of the third and the
fourth glumes.
These are tall, annual or perennial grasses, with leafy stems and narrow leaves. The spikes are few or many, solitary or panicled, with a jointed usually fragile rachis; the joints are rounded or compressed, hollowed on one side and excavated at the tip. The spikelets are usually binate, one-sessile closing or sunk in the cavity of the joint and the other pedicelled, smaller than the sessile or rudimentary with the pedicel usually adnate to the joints and equal to or shorter than it. The sessile spikelets are bisexual, 1- to 2-flowered, equal to or shorter than the joint and four-glumed. The first glume is coriaceous dorsally flattened, obtuse, margins narrowly incurved. The second glume is thinner than the first, broadly ovate, acute and gibbously convex. The third glume is hyaline, ovate, acute, male or neuter, with a membranous palea. The fourth glume is hyaline, bisexual, broadly ovate, acute with a hyaline, ovate-lanceolate palea. There are three stamens with linear anthers. There are two cuneate lodicules. Styles are two with laterally exserted stigmas. The grain is broadly oblong. The pedicelled spikelets are smaller than the sessile, male or neuter, with four glumes. The first glume is herbaceous, many-nerved, ovate-acute, minutely bifid at the apex. The second, third and the fourth are more or less similar to those of the sessile spikelet.
KEY TO THE SPECIES.
This is a tufted perennial with creeping stems which branch freely into ascending compressed branches, 10 inches to 2 feet high.
The leaf-sheath is quite glabrous and compressed. The ligule is a short ciliate membrane. Nodes are glabrous.
The leaf-blade is flat, linear, acute, glabrous, 2 to 6 inches long.
The inflorescence consists of a solitary terminal or axillary raceme 1 to 2 inches long; joints are shorter than the spikelets, excavate on one side and with a pore which is hidden by the sessile spikelet. The sessile spikelet consists of four glumes. The first glume is somewhat fiddle-shaped, dilated above the middle into an orbicular wing, and towards the base into two auricles joined by a transverse ridge, scaberulous, 5-nerved. The second glume is somewhat membranous, ovate, acute and 3-nerved. The third glume is hyaline, thin, oblong, obtuse and nerveless. The fourth glume is lanceolate, nerveless and without a palea, bisexual. There are two cuneate lodicules. The pedicelled spikelets also have four glumes and the pedicels usually free, but also sometimes adnate. The first glume is oblong, obtuse, winged on one side only, 5-nerved. The second glume is boat-shaped, chartaceous, 3-nerved crested with a semi-circular wing at the apex. The third glume is hyaline, broadly oblong, obtuse, 3-nerved with a lanceolate hyaline palea. The fourth glume is oblong, obtuse, male.
Fig. 144.—Rottboellia Myurus.
1. A portion of the raceme showing front view; 2. a portion of the raceme showing the back view; 3. a sessile and a pedicelled spikelet showing the front side; 4. the same showing the back side; 5, 6, 7 and 8. the first, second, third and the fourth glume of the sessile spikelet, respectively; 9 ovary and lodicules; 10, 11, 12 and 14. the first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the pedicelled spikelet; 13 and 15. palea of the third and fourth glumes of the sessile spikelet.
This is very common in dry somewhat sandy places in the East Coast districts.
Distribution.—Common in Deccan peninsula.
This grass is usually annual and rarely perennial. Stems are stout, erect, hispid, branching from the base, varying in height from 3 to 10 feet.
The leaf-sheaths are loose, hispid with tubercle-based hairs, or glabrous, with mouth contracted. The ligule is short and ciliate.
The leaf-blade is linear-lanceolate, setaceously-acuminate with a stout midrib prominent beneath, hispid or scabrid above, smooth or sometimes scaberulous and glaucous beneath, spinulosely scabrid at the margin, 5 to 24 inches by 1/4 to 1 inch.
Fig. 145.—Rottboellia exaltata.
1 and 2. A portion of the spike, back and front view; 3, 4, 5 and 7. the first, second,
third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the sessile spikelet; 6 and 8. palea of the
third and the fourth glumes of the sessile spikelet; 9. ovary; 10, 11, 12 and 14. the
first, second, third and the fourth glume of the pedicelled spikelet; 13 and 15. palea of
the third and the fourth glume of the pedicelled spikelet.
The racemes are stout, cylindrical below and very narrow and with imperfect spikelets above, joints are smooth and rounded dorsally. The sessile spikelets are as long as the joint or slightly shorter and has four glumes. The first glume is ovate-oblong, thickly coriaceous, smooth at the back with a truncate base and a transverse ridge at the base inside, many-nerved, with very narrow inflexed margins and very narrow wings at the top, the apex is obtuse or emarginate. The second glume is equal to the first glume in height, chartaceous, gibbously convex, broadly ovate, acute, 9- to 11-nerved, and with a short wing to the keel at the apex. The third glume is oblong or elliptic-oblong, rigid with a hyaline centre and coriaceous at the sides, 3-nerved, paleate and with three stamens; palea is as long as the glume, coriaceous with inflexed hyaline margins. Lodicules are cuneate, with toothed edge. The fourth glume is a little shorter than the third, ovate from a broad base, hyaline and acute, 1-nerved, paleate and usually with an ovary and two lodicules: palea is hyaline, as long as the glume. but narrower, nerveless. Lodicules are quadrate; grain somewhat large oblong and compressed. The pedicelled spikelets are usually imperfect.
This grass occurs all over the Presidency in cultivated dry fields.
Distribution.—Throughout the lower hills and plains of India and in Australia and Africa.
These are erect slender perennial grasses with narrow leaves. The spikes are solitary and slender, with a fragile, articulated rachis; the joints are terete, ribbed, all but a few upper with two equal and similar sessile spikelets, sunk in sub-opposite oblong cavities, separated by a hyaline septum, and with sometimes a minute glume representing a third spikelet (the pedicelled) on the upper margin of the joint. The sessile spikelets are one-flowered, nearly as long as the internode. There are four glumes in the spikelet. The first glume closing the mouth of the cavity in the joint is obliquely oblong, obtuse, smooth with narrowly incurved margins. The second and the third glumes are as long as the first, obtuse and hyaline. The third glume is empty, paleate or not. The fourth glume is rather small, oblong, obtuse, bisexual and palea shorter than the glume. The lodicules are not present. The stamens are three. Ovary is very small with stigmas not exserted. The grain is narrowly oblong compressed. The pedicelled spikelets are confined to the upper 1-flowered joints of the spike and their pedicels are confluent with the walls of the joints and their margins are marked by two ribs. The first glume is very minute and the other glumes are absent.
This is an erect slender perennial grass with smooth simple or branched stems varying in height from 2 to 4 feet.
The leaf-sheath is terete, tight, glabrous. The ligule is a short toothed membrane. Nodes are glabrous.
The leaf-blade is flat, linear from a narrow base, glabrous or base hairy; apices of upper leaves acuminate, and those of the lower obtuse, with finely serrate margins and a midrib prominent below, 6 to 12 inches long and 1/10 to 1/6 inch wide.
Racemes are short, exserted from the uppermost sheath, erect, 4 to 8 inches long; joints are 1/5 inch long, contracted in the middle, with two equal and similar spikelets, sunk in the opposite oblong cavities separated by a thin hyaline septum and sometimes with a minute glume of the third spikelet on the upper margin of the joint.
Fig. 146.—Mnesithea lævis.
1 and 2. Portions of a spike; 3, 4, 5 and 6. the first, second, third and the fourth
glume, respectively; 7. palea of the fourth glume; 8. ovary; 9 and 10. a part of the
spike at the terminal portion.
The sessile spikelets are 1-flowered, as long as the joint and varying in length from 1/7 to 1/5 inch and have four glumes. The first glume is obliquely oblong, coriaceous, smooth, obtuse, margins narrowly incurved, truncate and pitted at the base, 5- to 7-nerved. The second glume is as long as the first hyaline, oblong and obtuse. The third glume is like the second but thinner and slightly broader, paleate or not, empty. The fourth glume is rather smaller than the third, oblong, obtuse, bisexual and paleate; the palea is shorter than the glume. Lodicules are not present.
This grass is usually found in dry fields all over the presidency but it is nowhere abundant.
Distribution.—Throughout India and Ceylon.
These are erect leafy much branched annual grasses. Leaves are amplexicaul and cordate at the base. The inflorescence consists of small, terete, axillary and terminal spikes with peduncles often confluent in a leafy spiciform panicle; the rachis is fragile with short broad joints, deeply excavate opposite the sessile spikelets and the tips with two pits. Spikelets are in dissimilar pairs, one globose, sessile and bisexual and the other ovate, pedicelled, neuter with the pedicels adnate to, or closely appressed to the joint of the rachis. The sessile spikelet has four glumes. The first glume is globose, hard, coarsely pitted, with an oblong ventral opening opposite the cavity in the joint of the rachis. The second glume is chartaceous, minute, oblong, 1-nerved immersed in the cavity of the first glume and closing the opening. The third and the fourth glumes are hyaline and minute. The lodicules are broadly cuneate. Anthers are minute. The styles are free and stigmas are short exserted from the opening in the first glume. Grain is sub-globose.
This is a freely branching annual with stems leafy to the top and varying in length from 1 to 2-1/2 feet.
The leaf-sheath is inflated, covered with scattered tubercle-based hairs. The ligule is a short membrane with ciliate margin. Nodes are with long hairs.
The leaf-blade is linear, cordate and amplexicaul at base, acute, flat, flaccid, with scattered tubercle-based hairs on both the surfaces, 4 to 10 inches by 1/4 to 1/2 inch.
The spikes are solitary, axillary and terminal and 1/4 to 1 inch, the peduncles of the spikes are often confluent in a leafy spathiform panicle; the rachis is fragile with short joints deeply excavate on one side.
Fig. 147.—Manisuris granularis.
1 and 2. The front and back view of a bit of a spike; 3, 4, 5 and 6. the first,
second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the sessile spikelet; 7. ovary anthers
and lodicules; 8, 9, 10 and 12. the first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively,
of the pedicelled spikelet; 11 and 13. palea of the third and fourth glumes.
The spikelets are 1- to 2-flowered in dissimilar pairs, one globose, sessile and bisexual and the other ovate, pedicelled, neuter; the pedicel is adnate to the joint of the rachis.
The sessile spikelet has four glumes. The first glume is hard, globose, foveolate, with an oblong opening, faintly nerved. The second glume is chartaceous, immersed in the cavity of the joint, and filling the opening. The third glume is small hyaline and empty. The fourth glume is hyaline, small and paleate. The grain is sub-globose. Lodicules are broadly cuneate.
The pedicelled spikelets also have four glumes. The first glume is ovate, sub-chartaceous, winged on one side with a broad hyaline ciliate wing, 5- to 7-veined. The second glume is cymbiform, compressed laterally, with a dorsal hyaline ciliate wing to the keel, 5- to 7-veined. The third glume is hyaline, membranous, oblong, 2-nerved and paleate or not, and with or without stamens. The fourth glume is similar to the third, but slightly smaller, paleate and with three stamens.
This grass occurs in open loamy soils and in cultivated dry fields.
Distribution.—Throughout India and Ceylon and also in most of the tropical countries.
The grasses of this genus are either perennial or annual and vary very much in habit. The inflorescence consists of solitary, binate, digitate, or panicled racemes. The rachis is usually jointed and fragile. Spikelets are binate, a sessile female or bisexual and a pedicelled male or neuter. The sessile spikelet is 1-flowered and has usually four glumes. The first glume is coriaceous or chartaceous, dorsally compressed, with incurved margins, usually 2-keeled. The second glume is as long as the first, thinner, with a median keel, laterally compressed, awned or not. The third glume is hyaline, empty, nerveless and without a palea. The fourth glume is hyaline, narrow or broad, 2-fid and awned, or reduced to an awn more or less dilated at the base, paleate or not. There are two lodicules and three stamens. Stigmas are feathery. Grain is free. The pedicelled spikelets are usually smaller than the sessile and have three or four glumes and are awnless.
KEY TO THE SPECIES.
N.B.—This genus is now split into several separate genera, each subgenus being raised to the rank of a genus. But in this book the nomenclature adopted in Hooker's Flora of British India is followed.
Fig. 148.—Andropogon foveolatus.
The stems are slender at first, slightly decumbent at the base and then erect, covered at base with silkily villous sheaths, branches freely above before flowering, the lower portion of stems alone being leafy.
The leaf-sheath is somewhat scaberulous, partly green and partly purplish, always shorter than the internode. The ligule is short, truncate, hyaline and ciliate. Nodes are tumid and purplish with a ring of hairs.
The leaf-blade is linear, narrow, sometimes even filiform, acuminate slightly cordate at the base, scabrid throughout with a few scattered long bulbous-based hairs near the base to a distance of less than 1/2 inch about it and varies from 2 to 4 inches in length.
Fig. 149.—Andropogon foveolatus.
1 and 2. Sessile and pedicelled spikelets; 3, 4, 5 and 6. the first, second, third
and the fourth glume, respectively, of the sessile spikelet; 7. lodicules, anthers and ovary;
8, 9 and 10. the two glumes and the palea of the pedicelled spikelet.
The spikes are solitary, 1 to 1-3/4 inch long exserted far above the small spathiform leaf-sheaths, peduncles are capillary and scaberulous, pedicels and joints are somewhat flattened, and have along both the narrow margins long, white, ascending hairs; callus is short with a ring of short white hairs.
There are two kinds of spikelets, sessile and pedicelled, and both are oblong-lanceolate and equal. The sessile spikelet consists of four glumes. The first glume is lanceolate, flat and smooth, keels scabrid with usually a deep dorsal pit, 4-nerved. The second glume is lanceolate, acute, as long as the first, 3-nerved. The third glume is small, membranous, linear-lanceolate, nerveless. The fourth glume is the dilated base of the awn, awn is about 3/4 inch twisted to half its length, scabrid, the lower twisted part dark and the upper pale. There are three stamens and two lodicules. Ovary has two feathery stigmas. The pedicelled spikelets have only two glumes and contain three stamens. The first glume is oblong-lanceolate, 5-nerved, pitted above the middle, with recurved margins and scabrid keels and nerves. The second glume is lanceolate, membranous, hairy at the top, 3-nerved with margins infolded; palea is oblanceolate, thinly membranous, nerveless and ciliated at the top; there are three stamens and two lodicules.
This is a fairly common grass occurring all over the Presidency much liked by cattle and yields plenty of foliage if properly looked after. It grows on all kinds of soils, even laterite.
Distribution.—Throughout India.
Fig. 150.—Andropogon pumilus.
It is a tufted annual with numerous radiating branches, growing on all directions, bent below and erect above; they vary in length from 6 inches to 18 inches, but sometimes when growing under favourable conditions attain the length of 2-1/2 feet. The stem is slender, green, or pale reddish in the exposed portions and pale in parts covered by sheaths slightly flattened, smooth.
The leaf-sheaths are smooth, compressed, distinctly keeled. The ligule is a short, truncate, white, glabrous membrane. The nodes are glabrous.
The leaf-blade is linear, finely acuminate, glabrous, but sometimes somewhat scabrid along the nerves and with scattered long delicate hairs above especially when young, varying in length from 1 to 7 inches and 1/10 to 1/8 inch in breadth.
The inflorescence consists of paired spikes with very slender peduncles arising from flattened, glabrous, acuminate spathes, varying in length from 1/2 to 1-1/4 inches. The spikes are spreading and one of them always slightly longer than the other, reddish or pale green, 1/2 to 1 inch long; the rachis consists of five to eight flat joints broadened at the top and ending in a cup, densely ciliate on both the margins, but hairs on one margin are shorter than those on the other. Each joint bears a sessile and a pedicelled spikelet.
Fig. 151.—Andropogon pumilus.
1. A portion of the spike to show the arrangement of the spikelets; 1. the first
glume of the sessile spikelet; 2. second glume of the sessile spikelet; 3 and 4. third and
fourth glumes of the sessile spikelet; 5. anthers, lodicules and the ovary; A, B and C.
the three glumes of the pedicelled spikelets.
The sessile spikelet is about 3/16 inch with an awn 7/16 inch long. There are four glumes in the spikelet. The first glume is narrow, linear, membranous, grooved, finely bicuspidate at the apex, with incurved margins and two nerves ending in tubercles below. The second glume is a little longer than the first, narrow, lanceolate, boat-shaped, thinly coriaceous with membranous margins, 1-nerved and shortly awned. The third glume is about 2/3 of the second glume in length, and shorter than the first glume, linear-lanceolate, hyaline, nerveless or sometimes very obscurely 2-nerved. The fourth glume is narrow linear, hyaline with two very fine lobes at the apex with an awn between, 7/16 inch long. Palea is hyaline and very small. Stamens are three, ovary with two long reddish feathery stigmas. Lodicules small and cuneate. Grain is long and narrow.
The pedicelled spikelets have only three glumes, and are slightly shorter than the sessile ones, pedicel is similar to the joint. The first glume is ovate-lanceolate, thinly coriaceous, distinctly many-nerved, acuminate, margins infolded and membranous. The second glume is ovate-lanceolate, membranous, glabrous and 3-nerved. The third glume is short, oblong-lanceolate, nerveless or faintly 2-nerved. There are three stamens.
This grass is variable in its size. In dry soils such as laterite soils, it is a very small plant not exceeding 9 or 10 inches across its spread. But in good soil and under favourable conditions the plant measures across 5 or 6 feet. Cattle eat the grass before it flowers and do not relish it so much when in flower.
A common grass flourishing all over the Presidency.
Distribution.—Occurs in drier parts throughout India.
Fig. 152.—Andropogon pertusus.
This grass is perennial. Stems are tufted, very slender, widely creeping on all sides, purplish, but the flowering branches are erect or ascending from a geniculate base, leafy at base, the nodes of the creeping branches rooting and bearing tufts of branches which finally become independent plants at each node, the creeping branches vary in length from 1 to 3 feet and the erect ones from 10 to 18 inches or more.
The leaf-sheaths are terete or somewhat compressed, glabrous, sometimes ciliated near the node and shorter than the internode. The ligule is a truncate membrane, slightly ciliate or not. Nodes are bearded.
The leaf-blades in the prostrate branches are crowded, short linear-lanceolate, finely acuminate, soft, shortly hairy along the nerves, sparsely ciliate near the rounded base, varying in length from 1 to 2 inches and in breadth 1/8 to 1/4 inch; but on the flowering branches the leaves are longer, sometimes as long as twelve inches with bigger sheaths.
Fig. 153.—Andropogon pertusus.
1. A portion of a spike; 2. a pair of spikelets; a. sessile and b. pedicelled;
a-1. first glume; a-2. second glume; a-3. third glume; a-4. fourth glume and awn;
a-5. ovary and stamens; a-6. grain; b-1. first glume of pedicelled spikelet front and
back; b-2. second glume front and back; b-3. third glume.
The inflorescence consists of three to nine, slender, flexuous, erect, purplish spikes, 1 to 2 inches long, alternately arranged on a thin, long, slender, smooth peduncle of about six inches; rachis is slender and the joints and pedicels are densely silky with long hairs.
The spikelets are in pairs, one sessile and one-pedicelled, both are equal, purplish or pale. The sessile spikelet consists of four glumes and contains a complete flower and the callus is short and bearded with long hairs. The first glume is coriaceous, oblong-lanceolate, acute, truncate or emarginate, slightly hairy, or glabrous with a deep pit above the middle (sometimes with two or three pits also) 7- to 9-nerved with a few long hairs below the middle and with margins infolded and shortly ciliate. The second glume is lanceolate-acuminate and finely pointed at the tip and the point projecting slightly beyond the first glume, 3-nerved or 3- to 5-nerved, membranous, slightly hairy or glabrous, obscurely keeled. The third glume is thin, membranous, shorter than the second glume, linear-oblong, subobtuse or acute at the tip and nerveless. The fourth glume is the base of the awn and the awn is not twisted, bent at about the middle, 1/2 to 2/3 inch long; there is no palea. Anthers are three and yellow; stigmas purple. The grain is oblong-obovate, slightly transparent.
The pedicelled spikelets are slightly narrower than the sessile, generally not pitted (though pitted in some plants), and not awned, and each one consists of three glumes only; the pedicel is more than half as long as the sessile spikelets. The first glume is slightly hairy, oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, ciliate at the margins, 7- to 9-, or 13-nerved, generally without pits, but occasionally with one, two or three pits; the keels are ciliolate throughout the length. The second glume is membranous, ovate-lanceolate, acute, with incurved margins, 5-nerved. The third glume is hyaline, linear-oblong, glabrous and thinly ciliate at the tip or not with or without stamens.
This is an excellent fodder grass and it grows quickly and stands cutting very well. Cattle eat this grass very well.
Distribution.—This grass is found all over India in the plains or lower elevations of hills.
(Vetiveria zizanioides.)
This is a densely tufted perennial grass with branching root-stocks and spongy aromatic roots.
The stems are leafy, with equitant, hard, leaf-sheaths at the base, smooth and polished, solid, 2 to 3-1/2 feet high.
The leaf-sheaths are smooth, coriaceous, glabrous, keeled and compressed. The ligule is a very short membrane.
Leaf-blades are narrowly linear, erect, strongly keeled and flat, acuminate, glabrous both above and below, very much narrower than the sheath at the base, 1 to 2 feet by 1/3 to 3/4 inch.
The panicle is conical, erect with branches, fascicled, varying in length from 4 to 12 inches. The spikes consist of both sessile and pedicelled spikelets, that are either grey, green, or purplish.