82 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [VOLUME 17 
the involucre ; scales 4, the 2 outer empty, the 2 inner ones hyaline, both bearing flowers 
or the third sometimes empty; stamens 3. 
Type species, Coix Lachryma-/Jobi 1,. 
1. Coix Lachryma-Jobi L. Sp. Pl. 972. 1753. 
Stems 1 m. or more tall, branching ; leaf-blades broad and flat, up to 7 dm. long and 
4 cm. wide; inflorescences mostly from the axils of the leaves, fasciculate, the involucres 
white or bluish-white, globular or broadly ovoid, 6-12 mm. long. 
TYPE LOCALITY: India. 
DISTRIBUTION: Throughout tropical regions. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Rheede, Hort. Mal. 12: £1. 70; Rumph. Amb. 5: p/.75, f. 2; Bot. Mag. #1. 
2479 ; Lam. Tab. Encyce. p/. 750 ; Schkuhr, Handb. p/. 285 ; Webb & Berth. Hist: Nat. Canar. p/. 242, 
243 ; Mig. Fl. Ind. Bat. £1. 47, Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 20: f. 4; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: f. 4. 
Tribe 2. ANDROPOGONEAE. Low prostrate or creeping, or tall and stout, 
annual or perennial grasses, varying much in habit and foliage. Inflorescence 
of 1 or more so-called sub-compound racemes in which the axis or rachis is 
articulate, rarely continuous, at each node a primary branch arising which is 
the so-called pedicel, and here thus designated, of the primary or pedicellate 
spikelet ; these sub-compound racemes (referred to in the descriptions below 
as racemes when the primary branch is free, or as spikes when it is grown to 
the internodes of the rachis) arranged singly, in pairs, digitately, or in pan- 
icles which are sometimes decompound. Spikelets 1-, or rarely 2-flowered, if 
the latter the lower flower staminate, the upper perfect, arranged at each rachis- 
node, excepting the terminal, in pairs, one at the apex of a short primary 
branch known as the pedicel, the other sessile, very rarely single or in 3’s, the 
terminal group consisting of 3 spikelets, 1 sessile, the others on short primary 
branches, the latter, whether single or in pairs, often reduced in size and num- 
ber of scales, sometimes entirely wanting; rarely both spikelets are on primary 
branches, and so said to be pedicellate. Scales of the spikelet normally 4, 
sometimes 3, or in the pedicellate spikelets often reduced to 1, the 2 outer 
seales rigid, at length more or less indurated, always firmer than the remain- 
ing scales, the fourth scale sometimes awnless, or more commonly bearing an 
awn, this either perfect, 7. ¢., with a spiral column at the base and geniculate 
above where it passes into the contorted or straight terminal portion called the 
subula, or imperfect, 7. ¢., without the spiral column. Grain free, but en- 
closed in the outer more or less indurated scales: embryo large; starch 
grains simple, large, subglobose or obtusely polyhedral. Fruiting spikelets 
usually persistent and deciduous with the internodes of a readily disarticu- 
lating rachis, rarely deciduous alone. 
Internodes of the rachis of the racemes or spikes thickened, appressed or grown to the pedicels 
of the primary spikelets, thus forming excavations for the reception of the secondary or 
sessile spikelets; fertile flowering scales always awnless. 
First empty scale of the sessile spikelet flat or merely convex, not pitted. 
Racemes or spikes cylindric, fragile, readily disarticulating, the separated internodes with 
the apex pitted or deeply excavated. 
Pedicels grown to the rachis-internodes; spikes narrowed above into a long slender tail, 
consisting of imperfect spikelets; annual grasses. 5. STEGOSIA, 
Pedicels free from the rachis-internodes ; upper part of spikes like 
the lower; perennial grasses. . 6, COELORACHIS. 
Racemes or spikes compressed, the rachis tardily disarticulating, the 
apex of the separated internodes flat and not furnished with a pit or 
excavation. 7. HEMARTHRIA. 
First empty scale of the sessile spikelet globose, pitted. 8. HACKELOCHLOA. 
Internodes of the rachis not thickened, and without excavations for the 
teception of the spikelets. 
