The _leaf-blade_ is flat, linear from a narrow base, glabrous or base hairy; apices of upper leaves acuminate, and those of the lower obtuse, with finely serrate margins and a midrib prominent below, 6 to 12 inches long and 1/10 to 1/6 inch wide. _Racemes_ are short, exserted from the uppermost sheath, erect, 4 to 8 inches long; joints are 1/5 inch long, contracted in the middle, with two equal and similar spikelets, sunk in the opposite oblong cavities separated by a thin hyaline septum and sometimes with a minute glume of the third spikelet on the upper margin of the joint. [Illustration: Fig. 146.--Mnesithea laevis. 1 and 2. Portions of a spike; 3, 4, 5 and 6. the first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively; 7. palea of the fourth glume; 8. ovary; 9 and 10. a part of the spike at the terminal portion.] The _sessile spikelets_ are 1-flowered, as long as the joint and varying in length from 1/7 to 1/5 inch and have four _glumes_. The _first glume_ is obliquely oblong, coriaceous, smooth, obtuse, margins narrowly incurved, truncate and pitted at the base, 5- to 7-nerved. The _second glume_ is as long as the first hyaline, oblong and obtuse. The _third glume_ is like the second but thinner and slightly broader, paleate or not, empty. The _fourth glume_ is rather smaller than the third, oblong, obtuse, bisexual and paleate; the _palea_ is shorter than the glume. _Lodicules_ are not present. This grass is usually found in dry fields all over the presidency but it is nowhere abundant. _Distribution._--Throughout India and Ceylon. 27. Manisuris, _Sw._ These are erect leafy much branched annual grasses. Leaves are amplexicaul and cordate at the base. The inflorescence consists of small, terete, axillary and terminal spikes with peduncles often confluent in a leafy spiciform panicle; the rachis is fragile with short broad joints, deeply excavate opposite the sessile spikelets and the tips with two pits. Spikelets are in dissimilar pairs, one globose, sessile and bisexual and the other ovate, pedicelled, neuter with the pedicels adnate to, or closely appressed to the joint of the rachis. The sessile spikelet has four glumes. The first glume is globose, hard, coarsely pitted, with an oblong ventral opening opposite the cavity in the joint of the rachis. The second glume is chartaceous, minute, oblong, 1-nerved immersed in the cavity of the first glume and closing the opening. The third and the fourth glumes are hyaline and minute. The lodicules are broadly cuneate. Anthers are minute. The styles are free and stigmas are short exserted from the opening in the first glume. Grain is sub-globose. =Manisuris granularis, _L.f._= This is a freely branching annual with stems leafy to the top and varying in length from 1 to 2-1/2 feet. The _leaf-sheath_ is inflated, covered with scattered tubercle-based hairs. The _ligule_ is a short membrane with ciliate margin. _Nodes_ are with long hairs.