14 MR. G. BENTHAM ÖN GRAMINE AX. 
Notes on Graminew. By Georce BENTHAN, F.R.S. 
[Read November 3, 1881.) 
GRAMINE®, so long believed to be the largest Order amongst 
Monocotyledons, must now yield the palm to Qrchides in respect 
of number of species; but they must still be acknowledged as 
immensely predominant, as well in individual numbers as in the 
part they take in the vegetation of the globe. The great majority 
of Orchidee are very local, and amongst the few that are spread 
over wider areas it is frequently only in a few individuals dotted 
here and there; whilst a considerable proportion of Graminez are 
almost cosmopolitan in their geographical distribution within or 
without the tropics, often covering the ground with innumerable 
individuals. Orchideæ are difficult to preserve; collectors bring 
home but few specimens from their chief stations in tropical 
lands, and those few often imperfect. Their study is therefore 
surrounded by many impediments, and, with the exception of the 
few European ones, is in the hands of very few botanists; whilst 
Grasses, easily dried, abound in herbaria in specimens readily ex- 
hibiting their most essential characters ; and every local botanist 
considers himself perfectly competent to describe as new species or 
genera suggested only by comparison with the few forms known 
to him from the same limited locality. The consequence is that 
amongst the large number of new species of Orchidez described 
of late years the great majority (always excepting garden hybrids 
or varieties) appear to be really distinct; whilst the number of 
bad species and genera of Graminex with which science has been 
overwhelmed is truly appalling. Looking to the future, it is only 
probable that the preponderance in number of species of Orchidet 
over Graminee is likely to be greatly increased as well by new 
discoveries among the former, as by a critical revision of old 
species of the latter. On the other hand, although the interest 
in Orchidew has been so much intensified of late years, as well by 
the extent to which they are eultivated as by the singularities 
observed in their fertilizing-apparatus, yet their importance in 
the study of the history and development of vegetation, and in 
their application to the uses of man, remains as nothing compared ` 
to that of Graminex. 
This paramount importance of the latter Order in an economical | 
point of view has called forth innumerable treatises, memoirs, and 
essays on cereals, on forage and other cultivated grasses, on i 
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