512 ME. G. BEXTHAM ON CLASSIFICATION AND 



by Kurz, in the 38th vol. of the Journal of the Society of Bengal, 

 has been, I think, inappropriately united with Lepironia by 

 Miquel in his ' Illustrations de la Flore de l'Archipel Indien ;' but 

 I do not see how it is to be separated from Aublet's genus Ma- 

 pania (Plate VIII. fig. 8), of which my original Hypolytrum pyc- 

 nostachyum, from Panama, is a second American species (Mapania 

 pycnostachyd). Both in the New and the Old World, the number 

 of scales within the bracteoles appears to vary from 3 or 4 to 6 ; 

 and in the flowers I examined I found 2, 3, or 4 stamens, and the 

 habit is very much the same. I thought at first that Mapania 

 might be distinguished by the very long leafy development of 1, 

 2, or all 3 of the involucral bracts and the numerous spikelets in 

 the head, whilst in Pandanophyllum the spikelets are often solitary 

 or few, and the involucre does not exceed them ; but under this 

 view Mapania africana, Boeckel., would be a Pandanophyllum, 

 and Miquel's Lepironia macrocephala (Cephaloscirpus, Kurz), as 

 well as two unpublished African species, would become Mapaniae; 

 and a species from Samoa, and perhaps another from Africa, are 

 m many respects intermediate. "We must therefore, I fear, sink 

 Pandanophyllum into Mapania. 



Lepironia, Rich., or Chondracha'e, Br., has so very different a 

 habit, that the multiplication of inner scales added to the single 

 lateral spikelet may justify the retaining it as a genus. The 

 Australian plant may be, however, specifically distinct from the 

 original Madagascar species. 



Diplasia (Plate VIII. fig. 9) has very nearly the structure of 

 Mapania ; but the stamens and scales appear to form two distinct 

 whorls, one within the other ; and the scales are often, when 

 young, united in a tube, at least at the base, which, together with 

 the peculiar, oblong, flat caryopsis with a thick pericarp and small 

 terminal cavity, characterize it generically. The habit of the 

 typical species is very different, the long narrow spikelets being 

 widely paniculate. But it is only to this genus I can refer Spruce's 

 no. 3833, from North Brazil, with a densely capitate inflores- 

 cence, unfortunately distributed under the name of Hypolytrum 

 pycnostachyum, Benth., of which it has the habit, but which 1 have 

 above referred to Mapania. Spruce's plant may be characterized 

 as in the subjoined note*. 



* Diplasia fycnostachya, sp. n. Folia radicalia 1-3-pedalia, J-f polL 

 lata, raargine scabro-serrulata v. demum vix laevigata, in petiolum basi 

 vaginato-dilatatum longiusriile contracta. Scapus triqueter, scaber, 1-1£- 



