354 PHYLLORACHIS, A NEW GENUS OF GRAMINE^. 



next glume is short and acute ; the third is three times as long, very 

 acuminate, and forms the most conspicuous part of the spikelet, 

 being wrapped round the inner organs and deeply furrowed down 

 the back ; the fourth glume (flowering glume or lower pale) and 

 the palea are shorter, equal and very similar to one another, 

 chartaceous, acuminate, glabrous, and enveloping but not attached 

 to the grain. The fruit is one-fourth of an inch long, oblong- 

 linear, laterally compressed, deeply grooved down the inner face, 

 smooth, and capped with the withered remains of an elongated 

 apparently bifid stj^le with pilose branches. 



But besides this main inflorescence, other flowers are produced 

 in spikelets of a different character arising from the axil of the 

 upper leaf-sheaths, and supported on a long filiform peduncle con- 

 cealed within them, the spikelet itself appearing just above the top 

 of the sheath ; a second one being sometimes found half-way down 

 the peduncle, and thus entirely concealed in the sheath. These 

 spikelets consist of the same elements as the fertile one already 

 described, but the flowering glume and palea are much more 

 elongated, attaining a length of an inch and a quarter, and twice 

 the length of the third glume; the two pilose stigmas project 

 beyond the points of these, at the top of the spikelet. 



The genus may be thus defined : — 



Phyllorachis. — Flowers unisexual ?, arranged in 1 -flowered 

 spikelets ; palea entire, acute, with two stronger and six faint 

 equidistant nerves ; lodicules ? ; stamens ? ; style elongated, with 

 two long pilose branches ; fruit free, linear, laterally compressed, 

 deeply grooved down the inner face. Spikelets mostly arranged in 

 threes ; the lower fertile, sessile ; the u^^per and intermediate (?) ones 

 barren and connected with a broad flat truncate veined secondary 

 axis ; the whole three forming a compact compound spikelet, 

 which is articulated on the main rachis of the inflorescence ; this 

 last is four or five inches long, leaf- like, more than half an inch wide 

 when flattened out, but folded over the sides of the line of 

 compound spikelets so as to form a spathe-like covering, and 

 extending beyond the last of them as a leafy point, with a strong 

 midrib, to which, on alternate sides of its inner surface, the 

 compound spikelets are attached, and fi'om which very numerous 

 parallel straight slender veinlets pass at an acute angle to the 

 margin ; the whole forming a narrow, terminal, erect, somewhat 

 falcate inflorescence ; a few spikelets solitary on very long 

 peduncles in axil of the upper leaves ; glumes several and 

 very different, the two lowest ones subulate and short, the third 

 large and strong, in the fertile spikelet strongly sulcate down the 

 back, and furnished with five very closely placed veins on either 

 side of the furrow connected by short transverse reticulations ; the 

 uppermost glume (flowering glume in the fertile spikelet) very like 

 the palea in appearance and texture, glabrous, rounded on the 



the above interpretation, suggests that this subulate glume-like body "is probably 

 the point of tlie axis of tlio raceme similar to that seen in Atheropogon and other 

 allied genera.' 



