64 MR. CG BENTHAM ON GRAMINEE. 
thinner than the lower or outer empty ones, usually hyaline, and 
often bearing a twisted or bent awn. The two spikelets of each 
pair are either both of them perfect and fertile, or one of them 
is male only or imperfect, or even guite rudimentary, and the 
spikelets are often more or less surrounded by long silky hairs. 
But to each of these characters there are exceptions in single 
genera, which are retained in Andropogonee as agreeing with 
them in most other respects. 
The plants of this tribe are for the most part tropical or sub- 
tropical, although a few are found in more temperate regions, 
chiefly in the northern hemisphere. More than eighty genera 
have at different times been proposed, which some botanists would 
reduce to below twenty. Following as nearly as possible the 
principles we have hitherto adopted, I have thought that the 
following twenty-six may be admitted as fairly characterized, 
referring them to four subordinate groups or subtribes—Sac- 
charee, Arthvaxee, Rottboelliee, and Andropogonee proper. 
Saccharee comprise seven genera, in which the two spikelets 
of each pair are homogamous, both of them hermaphrodite and 
usually fertile, and the inflorescence paniculate, excepting Pogo- 
natherum. 
1. IurERATA, Cyr., three or four species widely spread over the 
iropieal and subtropical regions both of the New and the Old 
World, extending northwards to South Europe, China, and Japan. 
In this and the following, Miscanthus, the branches of the panicle 
are exceptionally inarticulate, showing an approach to the Tri- 
steginee ; but the long silky hairs and the very much reduced 
hyaline flowering glume and palea retain them in Andropogone&. 
Munro has shown that the common American Z. caudata, Anders., 
is identical with the Old-World Z. ramosa, Anders.; and I also 
can find no difference between the two, any more than between 
the American and the Old- World specimens of T. arundinacea. 
Fournier has, however, proposed to separate the American forms 
of the two species generically under the name of Syllepis, on the 
plea of their having the two lodicules connate into a single large 
truneate one, which I have in vain sought for in several different 
American specimens. It is possible that Fournier may have 
considered the small truncate palea as a pair of united lodieules, 
but, if so, they are precisely the same in the Old-World species. 
2. MiscawTHUS, Anders., as now limited, is a genus of eight 
species, of which one is South-African, the others dispersed over 
