ort scabrid awn at the tip, scaberulous at the back just above the
middle, 3-nerved, paleate and with both stamens and ovary; _palea_ is
narrow, lanceolate, as long as the glume and 2-toothed at the tip. The
grain is oblong, brownish. The _fourth glume_ is about half as long as
the third glume, with a short, stout, smooth rachilla, ovate-lanceolate,
terminated at the tip by two teeth and a short awn, scabrid above the
middle at the back, paleate and male; _palea_ is shorter than the glume;
the rachilla is produced beyond the fourth glume and terminates in a
thickening.

This grass grows in open somewhat dry loamy and laterite soils in the
East Coast districts.

_Distribution._--Mysore and the Carnatic and Ceylon.

=Gracilea Royleana, _Hook. f._=

This is a slender annual grass. Stems are very slender, densely tufted,
geniculately ascending or erect, 3 to 8 inches long.

The _leaf-sheath_ is either covered with scattered tubercle-based hairs
or glabrous. The _ligule_ is a hairy ridge. The _nodes_ are glabrous.

The _leaf-blade_ is filiform, linear-lanceolate, acutely pointed,
glabrous or nearly so, margins distantly ciliate, 1 to 2 inches long by
1/16 inch or less.

The _inflorescence_ is 1/2 to 3 inches long and consists of fascicles of
spikelets; the rachis is trigonous, smooth, and flexuous.

[Illustration: Fig. 188.--Gracilea Royleana.

1. A fascicle of spikelets; 2. the spikelet without the first and the
second glumes; 3,4, 5 and 8. the first, second, third and the fourth
glume, respectively; 6. palea of third glume; 7. grain; 9. palea of the
fourth glume; 10. rachilla.]

The _spikelets_ consist of four _glumes_. The _first glume_ is rigidly
coriaceous, gradually narrowed from a villous base to an erect scabrid
awn, 1-nerved. The _second glume_ is also coriaceous, narrowed to an awn
but has broad hyaline margins towards the base. The _third glume_ is
ovate-lanceolate, scabrid all over the back and with two teeth, one on
each side of the awn, paleate; the _palea_ is 2-toothed at the apex and
as long as the glume and contains three stamens and the ovary. The grain
is oblong brownish. The _fourth glume_ is stalked, shorter than the
third glume, distinctly 3-toothed at the apex, scabrid at the back above
the middle, paleate and male; the _palea_ is smaller than the glume and
2-toothed at the apex. The _rachilla_ is produced behind the palea and
it ends in two small teeth, one being slightly larger than the