MR. G, BENTHAM ON GRAMINES. 117 
following fairly distinct sections :—1. Oataclastos, Doell, includes 
E. ciliaris, Link, E. peruviana, Trin., and a few other tropical 
species, which, on account of their short spikelets with few 
flowers and fragile rhachilla, have been restored to Poa by Four- 
nier and some others; but the shape and nervation of the glumes 
are quite those of Eragrostis, and the inflorescence, though pecu- 
liar, is not more that of Poa than of Eragrostis. Macroblepharus 
of Philippi, judging from his description, does not seem to differ 
from the true E ciliaris. 2. Plagiostachya comprises some 
African and East-Indian species, which, with the flat several- 
flowered spikelets and continuous rhachilla of Eragrostis proper, 
have an inflorescence approaching that of Chloride. The species 
are rather dissimilar in habit. Z. bifaria, teud., has the long 
simple terminal spike nearly of Tripogon, with obtuse glumes. 
E. Schimperi (Harpachne Schimperi, Hochst.) has a shorter simple 
spike and acuminate flowering glumes. Æ. brevifolia and KE. 
Calachyrum, Benth., the latter forming the genus Calachryum, 
Nees, and figured in the last part of Hooker' leones, have 
nearly the habit of some species of Eleusine (Dactyloctenium) or 
of ZEluropus. E. congesta, Oliv., and E. cynosuroides, Roem. et 
Schultes, have very numerous short sessile spikelets erowded or 
clustered along the long terminal peduncle. 3. Myriostachya is 
an East-Indian species, Z. Wiyhtiana (Leptochloa Wightiana, 
Nees), allied to E. cynosuroides, but with a more complicated in- 
florescence. 4. Pteroéssa, Doell, or Eragrostis proper, is charac- 
terized by the usually many-flowered spikelets with the rhachilla 
continuous or rarely articulate when old, the flowering glumes 
usually deciduous, leaving the palea persistent on the minute 
floral axis with its back to the rhachilla. The species are nume- 
rous, and may be distributed into three rather distinct series :— 
Cylindrostachye, three or four Australasian species, with narrow- 
linear almost terete spikelets; Leptostachye, including the cos- 
mopolitan Z. pilosa, Beauv., and its allies, with narrow-linear flat 
spikelets; and Megastachye, including the widely-spread E. mega- 
stachya, Link, and many other, chiefly American, species, with 
broader linear or oblong flat spikelets. The generic name Meya- 
stachya has undergone many vicissitudes. It was first founded by 
Beauvois on the Poa mucronata of his Flora of Oware and 
Benin; but in drawing up the generic character for his ‘ Agro- 
stographie’ he had in view chiefly the common E. megastachya. 
Fournier, more recently, founded a genus on those American 
