Mr. Woops on the Genera of European Grasses, 45 
will form a better generic character than the form of the 
number of florets, both of which vary greatly in the diffe 
even in the same, 
spiculæ and the 
rent species, and 
I am not at all clear that Cynosurus ought not to be divided into three 
genera. C. cristatus seems to have but little relation to C. echinatus and 
C. elegans, and C. aureus (Lamarckia aurea of Meench and Kunth) differs 
considerably from both. 
The habit of Dacryzis seems to be very distinct, while its keeled paleæ 
separate it sufficiently from Festuca and their point from Poa. The crowded 
position of the spiculæ is also very characteristic. These characters unite to 
a considerable degree in Poa littoralis, which has been placed by Willdenow 
and Schrader in this genus. The keel, however, does not continue to the 
base of the floret, and the outer glume is smaller, and certainly not more firm 
than the inner. Kunth considers it as a genuine, but not a legitimate Poa; a 
distinction which I do not comprehend. The spiculæ are strictly sessile on 
Opposite sides of an alternately flattened rachis, whose branches, however, 
combine into a dense one-sided spike. 
Festuca is a genus comprehending two or three different appearances, which 
are not easily united under one character, and which yet cannot well be sepa- 
rated. The first tribe, the Mygalurus, or Vi ulpia of Link, has the outer palea 
gradually tapering into a very long seta, and the glumes in general extremely 
unequal. The second, of which Festuca ovina may be considered as the type, 
has the glumes much more nearly equal, and the seta, where it exists, rising 
much more abruptly from the palea. This passes almost insensibly into those 
which have the point a little below the extremity of the palea, as F. praten- 
sis and F. elatior; and there is another group approaching in appearance to 
Poa. Kunth has two more groups, one of which is my gn but also 
including F. divaricata and Triticum maritimum, two pap which I iate 
with Festuca. Gaudin makes a division of those Festucas which have a xem 
not quite at the apex of the glume; but in F. pratensis, which may be * 
dered as the type of the division, the awn sometimes adheres to the palea quite 
to its extremity. ; | 
The awn a in Bromus is not in general a mere gs uaa gi d - 
midrib, but is strengthened by the union of two lateral ribs, which usually 
