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Circular No. 15— (Agros. 49). Issued July 14, 1899. 



United States Department of Agriculfure, 



DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. • 



[Grass and Forage Plant Investigation. ]N,^ 



RECEM ADDITIONS TO SYSTEMATIC AC^ROSTOLOGY. 



In 1890 there was published under the title of " The True Grasses " 

 a translation of Edward Hackel's contribution to the great work of 

 Engler and Prantl, "Pflanzenfamilien," by F. Lamson-Scribner and 

 Effie A. South worth. Since the date of this publication a number of 

 important works on grasses have appeared and several new genera 

 have been described. Last year, 1898, Hackel published, in a supple- 

 ment to the German work above cited, the important recent additions 

 to literature and descriptions of the new genera which have appeared 

 since the publication of his first )vork. A few of these additions 

 appeared in "The True Grasses," but the recently-described genera 

 and important changes in nomenclature, not published in that work, 

 warrant their jsresentation at this time for the use of American 

 students of grasses. Naturally the contents of this circular are 

 based largely upon the "supplement" here referred to. 



NEW LITERATURE. 



A. et Cas. de Candolle, Monographije Phauerogamarum, Vol. VI. Andro- 

 pogonege, auct. E. Hackel, Paris, 1889.— H. Baillon, Histoire des Plantes; Mono- 

 graphie des (3rraunnee8, Paris, 189B.— O. Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantaruni, 

 pars II (1891).— Bruns, der Grasembryo (Flora 1892).— Celakovsky, Ueber den 

 Aehrchenbau der brasilianischen Grasgattuiig t^treptocha'ta, in Sitzungsbericht 

 der Boelimischer G^sellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1889.— Derselbe, Das Rcdvic- 

 tionsgesetz dor Blatter das. 1894. Derselbe, Nejnovejsi badani a nazory o em- 

 bryn trav. (Die neviesten Forscbungen iiiid Ansichlen iiber den Grasembryo 

 (boehmiscben), in Vestnika Ceske Akadeniie Fr. Josefa V, 1896).— A. Schlic- 

 kum, Morphologie und anatomisb Vergleicb der Kotyledonen und ersten Keini- 

 blatter der Keinipflanzen der Monokotylen, Bibl. bot. Heft. 35 (1896). 



ADDITIONS AND CHANGES. 



After Zea L. add as a synonym Thalysia L. 1735. 



After THp/sacKiii L. add as a synonym Dactylodes Zanoni Nonti. 1742. 



After Coiv L. add as a synonym Sphceriinn L. 173."). 



After Polliii ia Trin. add : 



Ischnochloa Hook, f.— Spikelets very small in solitary clusters in the leaf- 

 axils, on a continuous rachis, arranged in pairs, one sessile, the other long pedi- 

 cellate, both hermaphrodite, lanceolate, longawned. First empty glume sub- 

 coriaceous, compressed dorsally, 5-6-nerved; the second similar, 3 nerved, both 

 awnless. Third empty glume wanting ; fiowering glume awned from the cleft 

 in the apex ; awn slender, geniculate. Stamens 3. 



