d 7. palea of the
third and the fourth glumes, respectively; 8. lodicules, stamens and the
ovary; 9 and 10. the first and the second glumes of the pedicelled
spikelet.]

The _pedicelled spikelets_ resemble the sessile ones in the structure of
their glumes and palea.

This grass is very variable in its habit and in the structure of its
spikelets. It grows mostly in wet situations, such as the bunds of paddy
fields and tanks. Cattle eat the grass eagerly.

_Distribution._--All over India and Ceylon.

=Ischaemum laxum, _L._=

This is a perennial grass with numerous stiff, thick and wiry roots.

Stems are erect, slender, rising in tufts from a short root-stock,
glabrous, leafy towards the base, varying in length from 2 to 3 feet.

The _leaf-sheaths_ are shorter than the internodes usually glabrous, but
occasionally with scattered hairs. At the mouth tufts of hairs are
present or not. The _ligule_ is a ridge of silky hairs. The _nodes_ are
glabrous.

The _leaf-blades_ are erect, flat, slightly glaucous, linear, narrowed
to long capillary tips, 5 to 12 inches long and 1/10 to 1/6 inch broad,
with prominent nerves and scabrid margins.

The _inflorescence_ is a solitary spike, 2 to 5 inches long, erect and
fragile; the joints and pedicels are compressed, somewhat 2-angled,
ciliate with long hairs, and about half as long as the spikelets.

[Illustration: Fig. 137.--Ischaemum laxum.

1. A sessile and a pedicelled spikelet; 2. first glume of a sessile
spikelet; 3. second glume of a sessile spikelet; 4 and 5. third and
fourth glumes of sessile spikelets; 4a and 5a. are palea of third and
fourth glumes; 6. ovary; 7, 8, 9 and 10. glumes of pedicelled spikelets;
9a and 10a. palea of third and fourth glumes.]

The _spikelets_ are in pairs, one-sessile and one-pedicelled. The
_sessile spikelets_ are pale-green, linear-oblong, acuminate with a
shortly bearded callus, 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch long. There are four
glumes in a spikelet. The _first glume_ is chartaceous,
oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 2-toothed with the teeth ending in two
short awns, densely ciliated at the apex on one side, conspicuously 6-
(rarely) 7-nerved, the two lateral being very strong and running into
the apical teeth and the intermediate four nerves being shorter and not
running up to the apex, and on the dorsal surface there is a depression,
where it is membranous and the nerves on its sides sometimes
anastomosing at the upper third of the glume. The