DIVISION I.— PANICACEiE. 



Spikelets 1-, rarely 2-flowered ; lower flower when present stam- 

 inate or neuter, at maturity falling from the pedicels entire, in 

 groups, or together with certain joints of the rachis. Rachilla not 

 produced beyond the flowers. (In Isachne the lower flower is per- 

 fect and the rachilla is articulate above the empty glumes.) 



"This division of Grramineffi is very well defined by two char- 

 acters : the articulation of the pedicel below the spikelet or cluster 

 of spikelets, and the single fertile flower apparently terminal, with or 

 without a single male or sterile one below it. Where either of these 

 two characters fail, the plant should be referred to Poacese. 



"As the spikelet falls away it usually leaves a slight dilation at 

 the apex of the persistent portion. This kind of articulation has 

 not been observed in any species of Poacese except in Fingerhutliia, 

 a genus of one species belonging to South Africa. In the CencJtrns 

 group of the tribe Paniceae, in the subtribe Anthephoreas of Zoysiese, 

 and in some Andropogoneae the articulation is not under each spike- 

 let, but under little clusters of spikelets; and in Maydese it is the 

 whole rachis of the spike or ear which disarticulates under each 

 female spikelet. The articulation is usually under the fertile spike- 

 lets only, and not under the males." Panicacea? have never more 

 than four glumes, and sometimes only three, rarely only two. In 

 Isachne and Beckmannia, and in very rare instances in some species 

 of Setaria [ Chamceraphis] and Pcmicmn, the lower flower may be 

 perfect, still it is usually sterile, excepting in the first genus men- 

 tioned. 



"The tribes of Panicaceae run much into each other." 



12 



