Stems are stout, tufted, geniculately ascending and erect when in flower, and some creeping and rooting at the nodes; leafy at the base and branching upwards, 1 to 3 feet; the lower internodes are 2 to 3 inches long and the upper still longer, glabrous. The _leaf-sheaths_ are glabrous, compressed laterally, open at the base and closed above, with a few scattered long hairs at the mouth, the margins thinly membranous. The _ligule_ is a very narrow membrane. The _nodes_ are glabrous mostly bearing tufts of leaves with compressed equitant sheaths. The _leaf-blade_ is narrow linear, flat or folded, acuminate, with long hairs on the margin towards the base, varying in length from 2 to 18 inches. [Illustration: Fig. 201.--Chloris barbata. 1 to 5. the first, second, third, fourth and the fifth glume of a spikelet; 3a and 3b. the third glume and its palea; 3c. ovary, stamens and lodicules; 4a and 5a. the fourth and fifth glumes; 6. grain.] The _inflorescence_ consists of five to fourteen or fifteen sessile, digitately arranged spikes, varying in length from 1-1/2 to 3 inches, on a slender peduncle; the rachis is slender minutely hairy swollen at the base. The _spikelets_ are green or purplish, 3-awned, unilaterally biseriate on the outside of the rachis, 1/10 inch excluding the awn; the _rachilla_ is bearded at the base, but is shorter than the third glume and bears two barren glumes. There are five _glumes_. The _first_ and the _second glumes_ are lanceolate, acute, membranous, pale and 1-nerved, but the first glume is shorter than the second. The _third glume_ is broadly elliptic or ovate, concave, awned, 3-nerved, with margins densely bearded above the middle and sparsely bearded dorsally on both the sides of the mid-nerve; the _palea_ is oblanceolate, as long as the glume, folded inside along the margins and outside along the middle, enclosing three _stamens_ and _ovary_. The _fourth glume_ is cuneiform, 3-nerved, awned, shortly ciliate above the middle, empty. The _fifth glume_ is awned, 3-nerved, glabrous, and globose. This grass is very widely distributed and it grows in all kinds of soils. Cattle eat it when young, but avoid it when the inflorescence is mature. _Distribution._--Throughout the plains in India, Burma and Ceylon. [Illustration: Fig. 202.--Chloris Bournei. 1. Full plant; 2. leaf showing ligule.] =Chloris Bournei, _Rang. & Tad._= This grass appears to be perennial. The stems are somewhat stout, tufted, erect or ascending geniculately from a creeping and rooting base, varying in length from 1 to 3 feet and with internodes to 6 inches becoming longer upwards. The _leaf-sheaths_ are equal to or longer than the internodes at the base, but shorter above, glabrous, compressed, distichous, bearded towards the mouth and with membranous margins. The _ligule_ is a narrow membranous ridge. _Nodes_ are thickened, deeply purple ringed, glabrous and the lower nodes always with a fan-like tuft of flattened leaf-sheaths and leaves.