TERMINOLOGY IN MONOCOTYLEDONS. 513 



In the large and familiar order of Gramme©, the glumal ar- 

 rangement is again typical; but, owing to some strikingly modified 

 relations in form and size of the upper and lower, or of the flower- 

 ing and empty glumes observed in a large number of species, the 

 terminology adopted by botanists has been very unsettled, and 

 repeatedly modified, since Linnaeus first endeavoured to assimilate 

 the spikelet to a flower with its calyx and corolla. For th 

 terms Jussieu substituted those of glume and calj^x ; and the latter 

 name appears to be still retained by Baron F. v. Mueller and a 

 few others, notwithstanding that the absence of all homology 

 between the so-called sepals in Grasses and those of perfect 

 flowers has been so repeatedly demonstrated. Other botanists 

 have variously proposed or adopted the terms tegmen, glume, 

 epicenium, peristachyum, tragulum, glumella, palea, lodicule, nec- 

 tary, etc. for the various scales which enter into the composition 

 of the spikelet, thu3 giving an appearance of complexity to an ar- 

 rangement which is really as simple as that of Cyperacese, and 



generally homologous with what may be observed in that order. 



When, some five and twenty years since, I began drawing up 

 the generic characters of Grasses for my ' Handbook of the 

 British Flora,' I purposed following the terminology of Kunth, 

 knowing him to be the most accurate as well as the most ex- 

 perienced among the agrostologists of the day ; but I was soon 

 brought to a standstill by the anomaly of the spikelet of Milium 

 being described as having two flowers and one glume, when I 

 could not expect any of my readers to see more than one flower 

 with three glumes. This induced me to pause till I had carefully 

 examined a great variety of genera, and compared them with the 

 nearest allied Monocotyledonous orders. The result was that it 

 appeared to me that no distinct and universally applicable defi- 



pedalis. Involucri bractca) ad 3, longe foliacea?, valde insequales (minor 

 angustissima, 3-4-pollicaris, maxima lalior subpedalis). Spiculae 15-20, 

 ovoideo-globosae, in capitulum densum sessile confertre. Glumxe nuinerosas, 

 oblongs, multineryes, 2 lin. v. paullo longiores. Squamella? hypogynce, 

 tenuissime hyalinre, apice srcpius lacero-multifidje, sub f ruetu fere evanid;v, 

 2 exteriores (bracteoke) complicato-carinafce, 2-4 interiores basi plus minus 

 in tubum coalitae. Stamina (3-4?) intra squamelias hypogyna. Stylus 

 semi-2-fidus, deciduus. Caryopsis oblonga, valde compressa, 2 lin. longa, 

 periearpio duro crasso albo, parte seminifera prope basin parva nigric:inte. 

 Hab. in Brasilia boreali ad cataractam fluvii Taruma prope Barra do Rio Neg ro, 

 Spruce, n. 3833. Specimina omnia, fructu maturo, staminibus stylisque plcrmn- 



quejam delapsis, staminum numerum non plane qptendunt. 



LINN. JOURtf. — BOTANY, VOL. XV. 2 Q 



