d. 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 150.--Andropogon pumilus.]

=Andropogon pumilus, _Roxb._=

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.

[Illustration: Fig. 151.--Andropogon pumilus.

1. A portion of the spike to show the arran