to 3/8 inch long, paleate; _palea_ is lanceolate,
nerveless and encloses three stamens and the ovary and sometimes only
the ovary. The _pedicelled_ _spikelets_ are shorter than the sessile but
with a shorter awn. The _glumes_ are similar to those of the sessile
spikelet; sometimes these spikelets are imperfect or even reduced to a
single glume.

This grass grows well in black cotton soils and sometimes it gets very
well established and then it is very difficult to eradicate it. Cattle
seem to like this grass.

_Distribution._--In black cotton soils all over the presidency, but most
abundant in the Ceded districts.

[Illustration: Fig. 135.--Ischaemum ciliare.]

=Ischaemum ciliare, _Retz._=

It is a tufted perennial grass, erect or creeping. Stems are erect or
ascending, sometimes decumbent at base, and rooting at the nodes, stout
or slender, 6 inches to 2 feet long.

The _leaf-sheath_ is compressed, loose, glabrous or hairy. The _ligule_
is a short, ciliate membrane. _Nodes_ are glabrous or hairy.

The _leaf-blade_ is flat, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed towards
the acute or rounded base, glabrous or hairy, 2 to 6 inches long and 1/6
to 1/2 inch wide.

The _inflorescence_ consists of two spikes, 1-1/2 to 2 inches long;
joints and pedicels of the pedicelled spikelets equal, hairy at the back
and at the angles.

The _sessile spikelets_ are 1/8 to 1/5 inch long, oblong, bearded at the
base. The _first glume_ is coriaceous, convex, polished, smooth or
pitted, hairy below, flat and veined above the middle, with broad or
narrow ciliate equal wings and with margins narrowly inflexed above and
broadly so below. The _second glume_ is coriaceous, equal to or longer
than the first, lanceolate, acuminate, or shortly awned, 3- to 5-nerved,
keel narrowly winged towards the apex, dorsally ciliate or not. The
_third glume_ is ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, ciliate towards the apex,
1- to 3-nerved, paleate; the _palea_ has a coriaceous lanceolate centre,
with broad hyaline ciliate wings and encloses three stamens. The _fourth
glume_ is hyaline, deeply lobed into two oblong obtuse glabrous or
ciliate lobes, with an awn twice as long as the spikelet in the cleft,
and paleate; _palea_ is lanceolate, acuminate, 2-nerved. _Styles_ and
_stigmas_ are short.

[Illustration: Fig. 136.--Ischaemum ciliare.

1. Spikelets; 2, 3, 4 and 6. the first, second, third and the fourth
glume, respectively, of the sessile spikelet; 5 an