MR. G. BENTHAM ON GRAMINE. 119 
As a sixth subtribe, Meliceæ, I have collected five genera 
allied both to Eragrostex and Festuceæ, but technically connected 
with each other by their spikelets containing two or more empty 
glumes above the flowering ones. This character is also observed 
in Eetrosia and in Lophatherum, which I had formerly included 
in the group; but on other accounts the former appears better 
placed in Eragroste&, and the latter in Centothece&. 
40. Cryprocutoris, Benth., a single species probably from 
Patagonia, 41. HETERACHNE, Benth., two Australian species, and 
42. ANTHOCHLOA, Nees, one or two species from the Andes of 
South America, are very distinet dwarf grasses, described and 
figured in Hooker's Icones. 
43. Merca, Linn., contains above thirty species dispersed over 
the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and extending 
down the Andes into extratropieal South America, represented 
also in South Africa. This genus, the typical representative of 
the subtribe, has, been universally recognized since the days of 
Linnæus, and less tampered with than any other genus of equal 
extent, although it may be in some degree polymorphous in habit 
as well as in character. In the typical Melicas, however varied 
the panicle, long and narrow, or very loose and spreading, the 
spikelets are generally nodding or pendulous, with rarely more 
than two flowers; the flowering glumes more or less scarious on 
the margins and never awned, and the terminal empty glumes 
one within the other, form an obovoid obtuse mass. Ina section 
proposed by Thurber for four North-west American species under 
the name of Bromelica, the spikelets are erect, with more rigid 
glumes occasionally awned and three to eight flowers, the upper 
empty glumes narrower and not so closely packed, giving the 
plants altogether so different an aspect, that I have much hesi- 
tated whether I should not, as suggested by Thurber, raise the 
section to the rank of a genus. In both sections the flowering 
glumes have five or more nerves. M. stricta, Boland., is in some 
measure intermediate between the two. Chondrachyrum, Nees, a ` 
Brazilian species which I have not seen, would seem from the de- 
scription given to be a true Melica. 
44. DTARRHENA, Rafin. (Korycarpus, Corycarpus or Ræmeria, 
Zea, Onoea, Franch. and Sabat.), two species, one from North 
America, the other from Japan, is very near Melica; but the 
flowering glumes have only three nerves and are hardened round 
the grain, which usually exceeds them, and the stamens are reduced 
