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. ægyptiaca.
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 1/8 to 1/6 inch broad.
The spikes are elongate, digitate, 2 to 7, 2 to 5 inches long, all in a terminal whorl and sometimes with one or two lower down, and with the axils glandular and hairy; the rachis is slender and dorsally flattened.
