The _sessile spikelets_ are 1/8 to 1/5 inch long, oblong, bearded at the base. The _first glume_ is coriaceous, convex, polished, smooth or pitted, hairy below, flat and veined above the middle, with broad or narrow ciliate equal wings and with margins narrowly inflexed above and broadly so below. The _second glume_ is coriaceous, equal to or longer than the first, lanceolate, acuminate, or shortly awned, 3- to 5-nerved, keel narrowly winged towards the apex, dorsally ciliate or not. The _third glume_ is ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, ciliate towards the apex, 1- to 3-nerved, paleate; the _palea_ has a coriaceous lanceolate centre, with broad hyaline ciliate wings and encloses three stamens. The _fourth glume_ is hyaline, deeply lobed into two oblong obtuse glabrous or ciliate lobes, with an awn twice as long as the spikelet in the cleft, and paleate; _palea_ is lanceolate, acuminate, 2-nerved. _Styles_ and _stigmas_ are short. [Illustration: Fig. 136.--Ischaemum ciliare. 1. Spikelets; 2, 3, 4 and 6. the first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the sessile spikelet; 5 and 7. palea of the third and the fourth glumes, respectively; 8. lodicules, stamens and the ovary; 9 and 10. the first and the second glumes of the pedicelled spikelet.] The _pedicelled spikelets_ resemble the sessile ones in the structure of their glumes and palea. This grass is very variable in its habit and in the structure of its spikelets. It grows mostly in wet situations, such as the bunds of paddy fields and tanks. Cattle eat the grass eagerly. _Distribution._--All over India and Ceylon. =Ischaemum laxum, _L._= This is a perennial grass with numerous stiff, thick and wiry roots. Stems are erect, slender, rising in tufts from a short root-stock, glabrous, leafy towards the base, varying in length from 2 to 3 feet. The _leaf-sheaths_ are shorter than the internodes usually glabrous, but occasionally with scattered hairs. At the mouth tufts of hairs are present or not. The _ligule_ is a ridge of silky hairs. The _nodes_ are glabrous. The _leaf-blades_ are erect, flat, slightly glaucous, linear, narrowed to long capillary tips, 5 to 12 inches long and 1/10 to 1/6 inch broad, with prominent nerves and scabrid margins. The _inflorescence_ is a solitary spike, 2 to 5 inches long, erect and fragile; the joints and pedicels are compressed, somewhat 2-angled, ciliate with long hairs, and about half as long as the spikelets. [Illustration: Fig. 137.--Ischaemum laxum. 1. A sessile and a pedicelled spikelet; 2. first glume of a sessile spikelet; 3. second glume of a sessile spikelet; 4 and 5. third and fourth glumes of sessile spikelets; 4a and 5a. are palea of third and fourth glumes; 6. ovary; 7, 8, 9 and 10. glumes of pedicelled spikelets; 9a and 10a. palea of third and fourth glumes.]