Mr. Woops on the Genera of European Grasses. 3 
grasses. Later still, Kunth in his valuable work on the Gramineæ has ar- 
ranged all these with Triticum, while the annual small-seeded Tritica, which 
had been united by some authors to Brachypodium, are referred by him to 
Festuca. He has also referred to Festuca the Sclerochloa of P. de Beauvois, 
some of which are plants which Smith had separated from Poa to add to Gly- 
ceria, and he leaves to the latter genus only two European species, G. fluitans 
and G. aquatica, plants not in habit closely allied, yet certainly very similar 
in the structure of their florets. 
The number of genera of grasses described by Kunth is 235, embracing 
3034 species. No one can have all these at once present to the mind, and it 
therefore becomes necessary to adopt some method which may bring them 
before us in regular succession or in tribes. Linnæus founded his primary 
divisions on the number of florets in a common calyx, and their arrangement 
in a scattered manner, or in a regular spike, making some exceptions, and 
adding in one or two instances some other character, in order to avoid any 
violent opposition to nature. His system obliged him to disperse some genera 
into different classes ; but in those included in the class and order Triandria 
Digynia he has endeavoured, in numbering the genera, to show something of 
their natural affinities in a consecutive series. In the English Flora, where 
the genera are less numerous, it appears of less consequence to make a com- 
plete arrangement ; but Sir J. E. Smith has followed the example of Linnzeus 
in a double distribution, arranging the genera at first according to a definite 
character, and when he comes to the species, placing them in an order more 
nearly corresponding with their natural affinities. No art, however, can 
reduce the genera of grasses into a simple natural series. "The Linnean bo- 
tanists of the continent of the present day do not seem in general to trouble 
themselves with this double order, but are contented to number and place 
the genera as they are distributed by the artificial character, and in tbis they 
have been followed by Dr. Hooker. Palisot de Beauvois, observing the de- 
fects of all former arrangements, published in 1812 an “Essai d'une Nou- 
velle Agrostographie.” In this he divides the grasses into two great families, 
in the first of which the spiculæ or locuste are all alike, each containing 
either perfect florets, or florets which unitedly contain all the parts necessary 
for the reproduction of the plant. The second contains those plants where 
B 2 
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