A very small densely tufted erect annual. Leaves are filiform. The inflorescence is a simple slender curved spike. Spikelets are very minute, one-flowered, half immersed in the alternating distichous cavities of the rachis of the spike; rachilla is bearded. There are three glumes in the spikelet. The first glume is very minute, empty, hyaline and persistent. The second glume is linear-lanceolate, rigid, empty, persistent recurved when old, tip obtuse or emarginate. The third glume is shorter broader, hyaline, one-nerved, obtuse or truncate, _palea_ is narrow with smooth keel. Lodicules are not found. Stamens are three. Grain is oblong terete and free. =Oropetium Thomaeum, _Trin._= This is a very small densely tufted annual grass, never exceeding 3 inches in height and with compressed slender, tough stems. The _leaf-sheath_ is compressed, membranous, short and open. The _ligule_ is an erect lacerate membrane. The _leaf-blade_ is filiform, shorter or longer than the stem, erect or curved, coriaceous with the margins sparsely ciliate with long strict hairs, 1/2 to 1 inch long. The _spikes_ are solitary or fascicled curved on very short branches 1 to 1-1/2 inches long; rachis is green, undulating, tetragonous, with a broad central nerve on the flat faces. [Illustration: Fig. 228.--Oropetium Thomaeum. 1. Spike; 2. spikelet; 3 and 4. empty glumes; 5. flowering glume; 6 and 7. flowering glume and its palea; 8. the ovary, stamens and lodicules.] The _spikelets_ are very small, one-flowered, half immersed in the alternating distichous cavities of the rachis. There are three _glumes_ in the spikelet. The _first glume_ is very minute, hyaline and sunk in the hollow of the rachis. The _second glume_ is the longest, linear-lanceolate, rigid, tip obtuse or emarginate, slightly convex with a broad thickened centre and recurved in fruit. The _third glume_ is shorter than the second, hyaline, broader obtuse, semi-circular in profile, excessively membranous, with the callus bearded and paleate; _palea_ is smaller than the glume. There are three stamens. Grain is oblong, terete, free. This small grass is very common all over the Presidency in the plains in moist places. _Distribution._--Plains of India, Burma and Ceylon. GLOSSARY. A Acuminate applied to the apex of a leaf having a gradually diminishing point, 49. Acute applied to the apex of a leaf distinctly and sharply pointed but not drawn out, 53. Adventitious roots which do not arise from the radicle or its roots subdivisions, but from parts other than these, 7. Aleurone layer a special peripheral layer in the grain of grasses, consisting of cells filled with proteid granules, 18. Amplexicaul applied to the base of the leaf when it embraces the stem, 12. Apiculate said of the apex when it has a sharp, short point.