MR. G. BENTHAM ON GRAMINEZ. 51 
lian species, of which one extends to New Zealand and New 
Caledonia, with a fourth from the coasts of tropical Asia closely 
allied to one of the Australian ones; 24. Orvma, Linn., about 
twenty species, of which one is tropical African, the remainder 
tropical American, including as a section Lithachne, Beauv. 
(Strephium, Schrad., Raddia, Bertol.) ; 25. Pmanvs, Linn., five 
American species; 26. LgPrAsPis, Br., three or four tropical species 
from Africa, Asia, or Australia, a genus nearly allied to, but per- 
fectly distinct from, Pharus ; 27. Lyagux, Linn., a single maritime 
species from the Mediterranean region; 28. STREPTOCHJTA, 
Schrad. (Zepideilema, Trin.), and 29. AnNomocHLoa, Brongn., 
both single Brazilian species. 
Tribe II. MAYDEz,. 
The grasses composing this tribe are usually erect and tall, with 
flat, long or broad leaves, the spikelets always unisexual, the 
males, in all except Pariana, in the upper part of the plant or of 
the inflorescences, the females at the base or in the lower axils, 
the grain, in all except Zea, enclosed in a hard stony case, formed 
variously of an outer glume or of a subtending bract. "Where 
there are several fruiting spikelets in one inflorescence they are 
superposed, and each one falls away separately with the internode 
to which it is attached, the rhachis of the spike disarticulating at 
each node. The male spikelets either wither away or remain 
persistent above at the end of the stem or on the top of the 
uppermost fruiting spikelet. The tribe is thus perfectly well 
defined and quite distinet from any other ; and the eight following 
genera of which it is composed, all tropical or American, and 
mostly small or monotypie, are likewise marked by positive eha- 
racters. 
1. Parrana, Aubl., an American genus of about ten species, is 
in many respects anomalous. The females, as in the other genera, 
are single at each node of the articulate inflorescence; but the 
male spikelets, instead of forming a terminal panicle, surround 
the female at each node and fall away with it. The stamens 
are also indefinite in number, ten to twenty in the spikelets 
examined, but Nees found as many as forty ; whilst in all the 
other genera of the tribe there are only the normal three. 
Doell describes the female flower as having five lodicules; but 
here there is probably a mistake. I have never been able to 
see more than three, which are rather large; but there are 
