450 CXLII. GRAMINEZ. 
Flowering glumes sessile or subsessile, hermaphrodite. Outer 
glumes membranous, few-nerved, equal, pointless. Flowering 
glume concave, either pointless or with a terminal, simple 
point ; palea 2-keeled.—Nees, 1. ¢. p. 273, sub Eriachne. 
Slender grasses, resembling Aira, and differing in the absence of a dorsal 
or basal awn.—7 Cape species. 
I think this genus would be more correctly placed in Festucacee. In 
true EHriachne the outer glumes are many-nerved ; in the 7 Cape species 
they are 1- or 3-nerved. 
56. AIRA, Linn. 
Spikelets 2-flowered, panicled. Outer glumes subequal, 
equalling the flower or longer, membranous. Flowering 
glume 2-fid or entire, with a slender, dorsal or nearly basal, 
knee-bent awn; lower sessile, upper pedicellate; palea 2- 
keeled.— Nees, l. ¢. p. 272. 
A. caryophyllea, a common but very elegant annual European grass, is 
found in many parts of the colony. Culm 2-6 inches high, all parts very 
slender. 
. 57. DANTHONIA, DC. 
Spikelets 2- or several-flowered, panicled or racemose. 
Outer glumes 2, membranous, subcarinate, pointless, sub- 
equal, equalling the flowering or longer. Flowering glume 
rather rigid, concave, many-nerved, 2-fid between the pointed 
or 1-2 bristle-tipped lobes, and there furnished with a basally- 
flattened and spirally-twisted or rarely straight awn; palea 2- 
keeled.—Wees, 1. c. p. 280. 
A large genus of rigid, often coarse grasses, the panicle sometimes loose, 
sometimes very dense and spike-like—Upwards of 50 Cape species. 
D. radicans, Steud. (L'rirhaphis Capensis), Nees, 1. c. 270, has all the 
points of the flowering glume more terete or cylindrical than usual. It is 
a slender grass, with narrow leaves and very pale inflorescence : found at 
Dutoits Kloof. 
58. TRISETUM, Pers. 
Spikelets 2—7-flowered, in close or racemose panicles. Outer 
elumes 2, membranous, keeled, pointed, 1-3-nerved. Flower- 
ing glume herbaceous, 3-5-nerved, 2-fid and setigerous at 
apices of lobes, with a dorsal, twisted or bent awn, rising 
from the mid nerve; palea 2-keeled, 2-fid.— Nees, 1. ¢. p. 345. 
Grasses resembling Danthonia.—6 Cape species. 
59. AVENA, Linn. 
Spikelets 2—many-flowered, panicled. Outer glumes un- 
equal, rigidly membranous, often longer than the flowering, 
lower 1—9-nerved, upper 3-11-nerved. Flowering glume sub- 
