MR. Œ. BENTHAM ON GRAMINE X. 107 
at the end of the peduncle, and in some species with the addition 
of others scattered or verticillate lower down. The flat spikelets 
have been sometimes mistaken for those of Eragrostis ; but their 
arrangement in two rows is always that of Chloridee. The genus 
is often restricted to Gertner’s E. coracana and E. indica, in 
which the spikes are digitated and rather long, and the membra- 
nous pericarp loose on the ripe seed. This character is particu- 
larly marked in the Z. coracana; but that is probably a plant 
somewhat modified by long cultivation. In the common Z. indica 
the periearp is often as loose, but sometimes remains very thin 
and not so easily detached. In the still more common Z. ægyp- 
tiaca, Pers., forming the genus Dactyloctenium, Willd., the digi- 
tate spikes are very short and dense, and the very thin pericarp 
appears to wither away or to dry up in ripening, leaving the seed 
apparently exposed and rugose, similar to that of E. indica. In 
E. brevifolia, Wall. Cat., aud E. glaucophylla, Munro (Dactylo- 
ctenium glaucophyllum, Courb.), the spikes are short as in Æ. 
egyptiaca, and more or less of the remains of the membranous 
pericarp may be often seen persistent about the seed. Acrachue, 
Wight and Arn., is the Z. verticillata, Roxb., in which the spikes 
are rather long as in Æ. indica ; but besides the terminal digitate 
ones, there are others scattered or verticillate along the peduncle. 
Arthrochlena, Boiv. in herb. J. Gay, is a remarkable Madagascar 
species which may be thus defined :—Z. macrostachya, Benth., 
elata, foliis angustissimis rigidis crassiusculis, spicis 2-3nis ter- 
minalibus, spiculis confertis 18-20-floris, glumis acute carinatis 
paleaceis bifariam imbricatis. A plant of rushlike habit about 
2 feet high, the spikes about 4 inches long, with very numerous 
spikelets varying from 4 to 6 lines long, resembling those of Era- 
grostis, but much more rigid. 
24. LzProcuroa, Beauv. (Oxydenia, Nutt.), about twelve spe- 
cies, tropical or subtropical, in the New as well as the Old World, 
and extending on the one hand into North America, and on the 
other into extratropieal Australia, is one of those genera which 
interfere provokingly with our classifications. Nearest allied to 
Eleusine, it has also considerable affinity with Cynodon, Diplachne, 
and Poa, to which some of the species have been occasionally 
referred; and one has been figured as a Cynosurus. The chief 
character consists in the slender spikes seattered along the 
common peduncle, with numerous small flat spikelets, giving the 
