Rottboellia Myurus, Benth.
This is a tufted perennial with creeping stems which branch freely into ascending compressed branches, 10 inches to 2 feet high.
The leaf-sheath is quite glabrous and compressed. The ligule is a short ciliate membrane. Nodes are glabrous.
The leaf-blade is flat, linear, acute, glabrous, 2 to 6 inches long.
The inflorescence consists of a solitary terminal or axillary raceme 1 to 2 inches long; joints are shorter than the spikelets, excavate on one side and with a pore which is hidden by the sessile spikelet. The sessile spikelet consists of four glumes. The first glume is somewhat fiddle-shaped, dilated above the middle into an orbicular wing, and towards the base into two auricles joined by a transverse ridge, scaberulous, 5-nerved. The second glume is somewhat membranous, ovate, acute and 3-nerved. The third glume is hyaline, thin, oblong, obtuse and nerveless. The fourth glume is lanceolate, nerveless and without a palea, bisexual. There are two cuneate lodicules. The pedicelled spikelets also have four glumes and the pedicels usually free, but also sometimes adnate. The first glume is oblong, obtuse, winged on one side only, 5-nerved. The second glume is boat-shaped, chartaceous, 3-nerved crested with a semi-circular wing at the apex. The third glume is hyaline, broadly oblong, obtuse, 3-nerved with a lanceolate hyaline palea. The fourth glume is oblong, obtuse, male.
Fig. 144.—Rottboellia Myurus.
1. A portion of the raceme showing front view; 2. a portion of the raceme showing the back view; 3. a sessile and a pedicelled spikelet showing the front side; 4. the same showing the back side; 5, 6, 7 and 8. the first, second, third and the fourth glume of the sessile spikelet, respectively; 9 ovary and lodicules; 10, 11, 12 and 14. the first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the pedicelled spikelet; 13 and 15. palea of the third and fourth glumes of the sessile spikelet.