Bourne No. 3594)."

_Distribution._--This grass was found growing in abundance in the fields
Nos. 13, 37 and 62 of the Agricultural College and in the grounds around
the Forest College, Coimbatore, and was also collected in Hagari and
Samalkota.

This grass grows well and is likely to prove useful, as cattle seem to
like it.

[Illustration: Fig. 204.--Chloris montana.]

=Chloris montana, _Roxb._=

This is a perennial grass usually met with on dry soils. The stems are
erect, tufted, geniculately ascending from a creeping base rooting at
the nodes, quite glabrous, varying in length from 4 inches to 4 feet.

The _leaf-sheaths_ are shorter than the internodes, flat, compressed,
glabrous, with a few hairs or not at the mouth and with membranous
margins; the uppermost sheath is spathiform enclosing the inflorescence
when young. The _ligule_ consists of only a thin ridge of short hairs
densely arranged. _Nodes_ are glabrous and dark-ringed, and with
fan-like spreading equitant leaf-sheaths and leaves more especially when
rooting.

The _leaf-blades_ are narrow linear, finely acuminate, rounded at the
base, glabrous throughout, folded flat inwards, 1/2 to 8 inches long,
1/16 to 1/8 inch broad.

The _inflorescence_ consists of three to six (very rarely up to nine)
spikes, 1 to 3 inches long, connate at the base, erect and never
spreading, the peduncle is slender, long, glabrous and copiously
pubescent just below the base of the connate spikes; _rachis_ is
angular, slender and scabrid.

[Illustration: Fig. 205.--Chloris montana.

1. A portion of the spike; 2. a spikelet; 3 and 4. first and second
glumes; 5 and 5a. third glume and its palea; 6, 7, 8 and 9. fourth,
fifth, sixth and seventh glumes; 10. lodicules, ovary and stamens; 11.
grain.]

The _spikelets_ are about 1/8 inch excluding the awns, shortly
pedicelled, unilateral, biseriate, thin and slender, 1-flowered, pale or
purple tinged, disarticulating above the two lower empty glumes, which
persist on the rachis, generally 4-awned, very rarely 3 or 5; _awns_ are
pale or purple, 1/8 to 5/16 inch; pedicel is short, angular, scaberulous
with a few pilose hairs; _rachilla_ is produced but is shorter than the
flowering glume. There are usually six _glumes_ in a spikelet and very
rarely five or seven glumes; of these the first two _glumes_ are
hyaline, empty, awnless; the third is flower-bearing and the rest empty,
thinly coriaceous and awned. The _first glume_ is w