hite or lightly
purplish, small, about 1/16 inch long, lanceolate, finely acuminate,
1-nerved, and with scabrid keel. The _second glume_ is twice the first
glume in length, oblong-lanceolate, finely acuminate, 1-nerved. The
_third glume_ is broadly oblong, chartaceous, 3-nerved, bearded with
long hairs along the margins from a little above the base, and with a
tuft of hairs at the base and an awn at the apex; the palea is oblong, a
little smaller than the glume, folded along the margins. There are three
_stamens_ with pale yellow anthers. The _styles_ are white with purple
_stigmas_. _Lodicules_ are narrowly cuneate. The _fourth_ and the _fifth
glumes_ are small, epaleate, empty, oblong, cuneate, 3-nerved, awned.
The _sixth glume_ is very small, cuneate, awned.

_Distribution._--In the districts forming the Coromandel Coast and also
Gangetic plains and Ceylon.

37. Eleusine, _Gaertn._

These are annual or perennial grasses. Leaves are long or short. The
spikelets are sessile, 3 to 12 flowered, 2 to 3-seriate, secund,
laterally compressed and forming digitate whorled or capitate spikes,
not joined at the base; rachilla continuous between the flowering
glumes. The glumes in a spikelet are few to many, keeled. The first two
glumes are subequal or unequal, persistent; the first glume is 1-nerved
and the second glume is 1- to 7-nerved. The flowering glumes are
3-nerved, paleate; palea is complicate; keels are strong, scabrid or
ciliate. Lodicules are two, cuneate. Anthers are short. Styles distinct
and short. Grain is free, rugose, and the pericarp is hyaline and loose.

KEY TO THE SPECIES.

Spikelets pointing upward at an acute angle with the rachis of the
spike.

Spikes 1 to 5 inches long, digitate,
erect. 1. E. indica.

Spikes 1/6 to 1/4 inch or a little
more, capitate, spreading. 2. E. brevifolia.

Spikelets spreading at right angles with
the rachis of the spike, spreading or
erect. 3. E. aegyptiaca.

=Eleusine indica, _Gaertn._=

This is a tufted annual grass with short, erect, somewhat compressed,
glabrous stems, 1 to 2 feet high.

The _leaf-sheaths_ are compressed, distichous, ciliate. The _ligule_ is
a ridge of hairs.

The _leaf-blades_ are narrow-linear, as long as the stem, glabrous or
with a few scattered hairs near the mouth, acuminate, base not
contracted, 12 to 20 inches long and