th_ is glabrous, finely striate, shorter than the
internode. The _ligule_ is a very short ciliated membrane.

The _leaf-blade_ is narrow linear, pungent, somewhat rigid, flat,
distichous, base rounded with or without a few long hairs and varies in
length from 1/4 to 1 inch and in breadth from 1/20 to 1/16 inch, but in
plants growing in rich moist soils the leaves become longer reaching
3-1/2 inches in length.

The _inflorescence_ is a narrow spiciform panicle with appressed
branches and spikelets, sometimes interrupted, varying in length from
3/4 to 1-1/4 inch; both the peduncle and the main rachis are glabrous,
and the latter wavy.

[Illustration: Fig. 180.--Sporobolus tremulus.

1. Spike; 2. spikelet; 3 and 4. first and second glumes; 5 and 6. third
glume and its palea; 7. ovary and anthers.]

The _spikelets_ are 1/16 inch long, oblong-lanceolate, pale, crowded,
glabrous, shortly pedicelled on thinly scaberulous filiform short
branches. There are three glumes in the spikelet, and all the glumes are
membranous and thin. The _first glume_ is a little shorter than the
second and about two-third the length of the third glume and 1-nerved.
The _second glume_ is a little shorter than the third or equal to but
not longer, oblong-lanceolate, subacute or obtuse, 1-nerved and
obscurely scaberulous at the back along the nerve. The _third glume_ is
broadly oblong, subacute or obtuse, 1-nerved, glabrous, with a palea as
long as the glume; the _palea_ is 2-nerved, oblong and truncate at the
apex. _Stamens_ are three and anthers are pale greenish yellow.
_Stigmas_ are pale. _Lodicules_ are two, small.

This grass is an excellent one for binding the soil and may also prove
successful as a fodder grass. It usually flourishes in moist situations,
in sandy loams and rich heavy soils.

_Distribution._--Plains throughout India and Ceylon.

[Illustration: Fig. 181.--Sporobolus coromandelianus.]

=Sporobolus coromandelianus, _L._=

The plant is a densely tufted annual varying in size with the nature of
the soil, small and stunted in hard dry soils and large and spreading in
rich loose and moist soils.

The stems are closely spreading on the ground, rooting sometimes at the
lower nodes, branching freely, profusely leafy at the base, covered by a
few scale leaves, and 2 to 12 inches long.

The _leaf-sheath_ is glabrous, faintly and finely striate, distichously
imbricate, compressed, somewhat keeled, outer margin ciliate, and