blong or lanceolate. The
second glume is concave. The third glume is hyaline, empty. The fourth
glume is very small or absent. Lodicules are present. There are three
stamens. Stigmas are laterally exserted. Grain is oblong or sub-globose.

=Saccharum spontaneum, _L._=

This is a tall perennial grass with a creeping root-stock bearing erect
stems and occasionally decumbent or prostrate stolons. Stems vary in
length from 5 to 20 feet. Branches and axillary buds grow out piercing
the sheaths near the nodes.

The _leaf-sheath_ is glabrous, but woolly at the mouth. The _ligule_ is
a distinct ovate membrane. The _nodes_ are glabrous.

The _leaf-blade_ is very long, narrow linear, acuminate and narrowing
downwards into the stout midrib, coriaceous, glabrous and 1-1/2 to 2
feet by 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

The _panicle_ is lanceolate, 8 to 24 inches, silky and the peduncle just
below the panicle is softly silky, branches are whorled, three to five
at a level, 2 to 4 inches long, rachis of the branches almost capillary,
jointed and fragile, joints with long cilia at the back.

The _spikelets_ are binate, one sessile and another pedicelled, both
bisexual and alike, lanceolate, 1/8 to 1/6 inch long, callus is minute
and bearded with spreading silky hairs 1/2 inch long.

[Illustration: Fig. 129.--Saccharum spontaneum.

1. Two spikelets; 2, 3, 4 and 5. the first, second, third and the fourth
glume, respectively; 6. ovary, stamens and lodicules.]

There are four _glumes_. The _first glume_ is lanceolate, subulate,
acuminate, 2-nerved, flattened dorsally, coriaceous at the base and
hyaline above it, and with smooth incurved margins. The second _glume_
is about equal to or slightly shorter than the first, lanceolate,
acuminate, 1-nerved, keeled with an opaque base; margins and keel are
ciliate with fine long hairs. The _third glume_ is hyaline,
ovate-lanceolate, nerveless, acute, ciliate. The _fourth glume_ is very
slender, ciliate, acuminate, paleate; _palea_ is minute, very variable.
_Stamens_ are three. _Lodicules_ are cuneate or quadrate. The grain is
very small, oblong.

_Distribution._--This occurs all over India along the sides of the
river.

20. Ischaemum, _L._

The grasses of this genus are either annuals or perennials. The
inflorescence consists of spikes, solitary, digitate or fascicled,
articulate and fragile; the joints of the floral axis and the pedicels
of the pedicelled spikelets are trigonous and hollowed