c,
striate, 2 to 12 inches long. Branches are irregularly distantly
alternate, solitary or rarely two, swollen at base, dividing into
slender filiform spreading branchlets; the lower branches from 3 to 7
inches in length and getting shorter upwards. Branchlets are 1/2 to 3
inches, capillary, angular and further dividing.

[Illustration: Fig. 101.--Panicum trypheron.

1 and 2. Front and back view of the spikelet; 3, 4 and 5. the first,
second and the third glume, respectively; 6. palea of the third glume; 7
and 8. the fourth glume and its palea; 9. stamens, ovary and lodicules.]

The _spikelets_ are ovate, acuminate, binate (sometimes solitary or
three) on a common finely filiform stalk, one long and the other short
pedicelled, pale or yellowish green, or purple; pedicels are angular,
scabrid or scaberulous, slightly swollen at the top and sometimes with
setose hairs also.

There are four _glumes_. The _first glume_ is green or purple, broadly
ovate, acuminate, clasping at the base, about two-thirds of the third
glume, membranous, nerves five, the lateral two stout and anastomosing
halfway, finely scaberulous especially on the nerves and more so on the
central one. The _second glume_ is slightly longer than the third, green
or purple, ovate, acuminate, generally 7-nerved and sometimes also with
two more indistinct marginal nerves, i.e., 9-nerved, scaberulous on the
nerves. The _third glume_ is pale green or yellow, ovate-oblong, acute
or subacute, obscurely scaberulous, 9-nerved (two of the nerves in the
middle sometimes not running to the base), paleate, empty. _Palea_ is
hyaline, smaller than the glume, oblong, obtuse, minutely two-lobed or
two-toothed at the apex; margins broadly infolded. The _fourth glume_ is
elliptic obtuse, shorter than the third, smooth, shining, coriaceous,
dorsally convex, with a prominent short, broad stipe at the base which
is persistent with the glume, 5-nerved, sometimes with seven nerves
especially when young (two marginal ones being indistinct). _Palea_ is
similar to the glume in texture. _Anthers_ are three, linear, orange
yellow. _Lodicules_ are two and prominent though small. _Stigmas_
feathery and white.

_P. tenellum_, Roxb. Fl. Indica I. 306 is probably not this plant though
quoted as a synonym, for it is described as having culms prostrate and
rooting at the nodes.

This grass is of wide distribution in the Presidency, but it is nowhere
abundant. It is fairly common in culti