GUAMINEiE. 527 



3-aiidrons, ? abortive : the rudiments loug-hairy. Ovary 3-coccous, with as many central, 

 sterile pistils ; style 3-fid : stigma 2-fid. Carpids medianicide. — Stems long, leafy, creep- 

 ing, or "floating ;" leaves recurved-spreading, broadly linear-acuminate, bearded-ciliate at 

 the clasping base ; peduncles short, lateral, simple, exceeded by the basilar bract ; flowers 

 in a pea-sized cluster, exceeded by the oblong, cuspidate, glumaceous, hairy bractlets, $ and 

 $ iu pairs, the former pedicellate. 



2. T. fluviatilis, Aubl. Stem 4"-12", leaves 4"'-8'", peduncle 3"'-4/" long; glumes 

 brownish, membranaceous. — Hab. Trinidad !, Cr. : [Guiana, Brazil !]. 



CXXXV. GRAMINE^. 



Flowers in spikelets, apetalous, enclosed by glumaceous bracts : the primary bracts (the 

 glumes) distichous along the axis (the rhachis), the secondary (the paleae) alternating with 

 the former, single below the minute 2 (3-0) sepals (the lodiculse), usually 2-nerved. Stamens 

 usually 3, hypogynous. Ovary simple : ovule single, lateral : style mostly 2-cleft : stigmas 

 bearing collecting hairs. Fruit a caryopsis. Embryo on the outside of the amylaceous al- 

 bumen, with a dorsal appendage (the scutellum). — Stem (culm) jointed: internodes hol- 

 low : leaves distichous : sheath split, often with a stipular appendage (the ligulej at the 

 base of the blade ; spikelets paniculate or spicate. 



The Cerealia, or corn-plauts, cultivated in the West Indies, are : maize, or Indian corn 

 (Zea), Guinea-corn (Sorghum), Chinese corn (Setaria ilalica), millet {Panicum miliaceum), 

 rice (Oryza saliva), the latter rarely, Panicum maximum is cultivated for fodder. Excel- 

 lent pasture-grasses are Panicum molle, Paspalum compressum and notatum (while other 

 I'aspala, e.g. P. conjugation and filiforme, are refused by cattle), Anthephora elegans. 

 In the sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) and some other grasses the gum of the sap 

 is replaced by sugar. An aromatic principle exists iu Vetiveria. Silex is abundant in the 

 nodes of the bamboo {Bambma), and it occurs generally in the leaf-sheaths. The bamboo 

 affords fibre, and is, as well as caue (Arundo), employed for thatches, poles, and living 

 fences. 



In the description of the bracts of grasses I adopt here the terms lately proposed by Mr. 

 A. Brown, as being more in accordance with the homologous organs of Cyperacea. Hence 

 all bracts proceeding from the rhachis of the spikelet are called glumes (comprising "glumfe 

 et palese inleriores" of former authors), while the term palea is confined to the special bract- 

 let of the flower (formerly " palea superior"). The glumes again are either sterile (formerly 

 "glumse et flores steriles inferioies"), or fertile ("paleae inferiores"), or imperfect (" flores 

 abortivi superiores"). The number of flowers is to be determined from such glumes only 

 as are provided with sexual organs. 



Tribe I. POACEJE, R. Br. — Lowest or single fertile glume placed above the lowest sterile 

 glume of the spikelet : rhachis usually produced beyond the uppermost, often imperfect 

 glumes. 



Subtribe 1. BAMBTJSEJE. — Spikelets inserted into the excavated axis. Sterile 

 glumes usually more than two, fertile coriaceous. Stamens mostly 6 or more. Stigmas 

 projecting from the flower at or below its summit. Embryo minute. — Stem mostly 

 woody. 



1. PARIANA, Aubl. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, <J pedicellate, dorsally compressed, whorled around the central ses- 

 sile? : pedicels dilated, cohering. Sterile glumes of<J2, obliquely lateral herbaceous, of $ 

 membranaceous, tertile glume and palea of $> indurated : stigmas 2, sessile. — Shrubby 

 grasses ; leaves broad ; clusters of spikelets in a contiguous spike. 



1 . P. syWestTis, Ns. Tube of pedicels pubescent, chiefly at the base ; £ sterile 

 glumes little shorter than the flower, lanceolate-acuminate. — The leaves of the Brazilian 

 species, as described by Nees, are " oblong, acuminate, acute at the base, scabrous at the 

 margin -." our specimen is devoid of leaves, presenting scapes, rooting at the branched base, 



