1919] Nelson,— The Genus Bromelica 215 
THE NEW GENUS BROMELICA (THURB.  FARWELL. 
JAMES C. NELSON. 
THE arguments adduced by Mr. Farwell in support of his proposed 
new genus Bromelica (RHODORA 21: 76-78) are very convincing as long 
as the delimitation of Melica is based on the characters taken by most 
American authors as distinctive. Certainly if the genus is established 
primarily on the texture of the lemmas and the arrangement of the 
uppermost into a club-shaped mass, it becomes very difficult to con- 
struct any key that will place the species striata, Smith, aristata, 
subulata, Harfordii and Geyeri under the genus. Yet, as Mr. Farwell 
points out, this is Just what American botanists have done, with results 
that have led to much inconsistency and confusion. If these are 
indeed the characters that distinguish Melica from its allies, a subdivi- 
sion of the genus seems inevitable. 
But the question arises whether the characters above stated are 
correctly taken as those on which the genus is established. Undoubt- 
edly it is excluded from Aveneae for the reasons advanced by Mr. 
Farwell, i. e., the glumes are shorter than the lower floret, and the 
rachilla is not prolonged. Clearly then it belongs in Festuceae, as 
long as that tribe is delimited as at present. Just as clearly it is 
separated from Festuca by the bifid apex of the lemma. Apparently 
then Bromus is its nearest ally among the North American grasses. 
But cannot some less minute character than the pubescence of the 
grain or its adherence to the palet be found to distinguish Melica from 
Bromus, which will at the same time permit the retention of the species 
of Mr. Farwell's Bromelica under the original Melica ? 
After a careful study of Hackel's key to the Festuceae (in Engler & 
Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. ii. Abt. 2, 61—64), I cannot feel that he 
regarded the texture or arrangement of the lemmas as determining 
characters, or that he would have accepted the prevailing American 
delimitation of the genus. The essential facts seem to him’to be (1) 
the presence of imperfect florets on the upper part of the spikelet; (2) 
the number of such florets — not their texture or arrangement. The 
genera in which these sterile or empty lemmas are uniformly fwo or 
more might then be set off from those in which normally only one, 
