MR. G. BENTHAM ON GRAMINE. 115 
much resembles the spikes of Chloridez, and the glumes, though 
very pointed, are unawned ; and Fulona, Adans., altered by Du- 
mortier to Phalona, for the C. echinatus, Linn., and C. elegans, 
Desf., with the panicle or head more like that of a Dactylis, but 
with awned glumes. 
The characters of our fifth subtribe, Eragrostee, like those of 
Eufestucez, are chiefly negative. The two together comprise all 
the Festuce& which have not the peculiarities of either of the 
other six subtribes, and differ from each other in the Eragrostez 
having three prominent nerves to the flowering glumes, the Eufes- 
tucez five or more nerves, sometimes rather obscure. Trifling as 
this character may be, it is a fairly constant one, the exceptional 
species being exceedingly rare; and I have found no other one 
so useful in distributing these numerous genera into groups. 
We have included in Eragrostex twelve of them, though the last 
of them (£ctrosia) might be equally well placed under the fol- 
lowing subtribe Melicez. 
28. KerErra, Pers, has about twelve species, of which ten 
are European, temperate Asiatie, or North African, one of them 
extending over extratropical America north and south and South 
Africa; the two remaining species are endemie, one in South 
Africa, the other iu the Sandwich Islands. The genus has been 
generally admitted with little variation ; but it is difficult to assign 
to it any positive character. The panicle is usually dense and 
narrow, often spike-like; and the glumes are more scarious, espe- 
cially on the margins, and have fainter nerves than in the others 
of the subtribe. It has been divided into two sections, maintained 
by some as genera :—1. Airochloa, Link, to which Reichenbach 
restricts the name of Kæleria, with the glumes obtuse or acute 
but without distinct points; and 2. Lophochloa, Reichenb., to 
which Link restricts the name of Keleria (4Eyialitis, Trin., 
altered by Schultes to ZEgialina), in which the flowering glumes 
have a distinct point or short awn at or just below the tip. This 
section includes, besides the species enumerated by Cosson and 
Durieu in their ‘ Flore d’ Algérie, K. Gerardi, Munro, from South 
Africa, and K. glomerata, Kunth (K. vestita, Nees), from the 
Sandwich Islands. The last species differs slightly from the 
genus in the long loose panicle, which, however, is more dense in 
our specimens than it is figured by Kunth. C. Koch’s genus 
Withelmsia, from the Caucasus, is, according to Grisebach, only 
a depauperated specimen of K. phleoides, Pers. 
