although its distribution
is said to be Central and Southern India. It was found growing
abundantly on old walls of houses in Poona city in 1920 and 1921.

[Illustration: Fig. 199.--Chloris barbata (perennial plant).]

[Illustration: Fig. 200.--Chloris barbata.]

=Chloris barbata, _Sw._=

This is a very common perennial grass.

Stems are stout, tufted, geniculately ascending and erect when in
flower, and some creeping and rooting at the nodes; leafy at the base
and branching upwards, 1 to 3 feet; the lower internodes are 2 to 3
inches long and the upper still longer, glabrous.

The _leaf-sheaths_ are glabrous, compressed laterally, open at the base
and closed above, with a few scattered long hairs at the mouth, the
margins thinly membranous. The _ligule_ is a very narrow membrane. The
_nodes_ are glabrous mostly bearing tufts of leaves with compressed
equitant sheaths.

The _leaf-blade_ is narrow linear, flat or folded, acuminate, with long
hairs on the margin towards the base, varying in length from 2 to 18
inches.

[Illustration: Fig. 201.--Chloris barbata.

1 to 5. the first, second, third, fourth and the fifth glume of a
spikelet; 3a and 3b. the third glume and its palea; 3c. ovary, stamens
and lodicules; 4a and 5a. the fourth and fifth glumes; 6. grain.]

The _inflorescence_ consists of five to fourteen or fifteen sessile,
digitately arranged spikes, varying in length from 1-1/2 to 3 inches, on
a slender peduncle; the rachis is slender minutely hairy swollen at the
base.

The _spikelets_ are green or purplish, 3-awned, unilaterally biseriate
on the outside of the rachis, 1/10 inch excluding the awn; the
_rachilla_ is bearded at the base, but is shorter than the third glume
and bears two barren glumes. There are five _glumes_. The _first_ and
the _second glumes_ are lanceolate, acute, membranous, pale and
1-nerved, but the first glume is shorter than the second. The _third
glume_ is broadly elliptic or ovate, concave, awned, 3-nerved, with
margins densely bearded above the middle and sparsely bearded dorsally
on both the sides of the mid-nerve; the _palea_ is oblanceolate, as long
as the glume, folded inside along the margins and outside along the
middle, enclosing three _stamens_ and _ovary_. The _fourth glume_ is
cuneiform, 3-nerved, awned, shortly ciliate above the middle, empty. The
_fifth glume_ is awned, 3-nerved, glabrous, and globose.

This grass is very widely distributed and it grows in a