CHLORIDE.E. 431 



Gen. 1:7G (1818). Leptostachys G. F. T. Mey. Prim. Fl. Esseg. 

 73 (1818). 



Spikelets 2- to many-flowered (very rarely 1-flowered), sessile or 

 very shortly pedicellate in 3 rows along 1 side (in one section, along 

 3 sides of a triquetrous rachis of the slender racliis of a simple S])ike 

 or of the numerous branches of a simple panicle, flowers all perfect 

 or the upper one staminate; rachilla articulate above the outer glumes, 

 usually hairy and more or less produced above the florets. Empty 

 glumes 2, membranous, keeled, acute or obtuse, unequal, unawned, 

 first 1-nerved, second 1-3 nerved ; floral glume 1-3-nerved, often 

 with a sharply 2-lobed apex, the keel produced into a sharp point 

 or awn between or a little below the lobes ; palea thin, shorter than 

 its glume, prominently 2-nerved. Stamens 2-3. Styles short, dis- 

 tinct. Grain smooth or nearly so, enclosed, but not adherent. 

 Seed loose or easily freed from the pericarp. 



Professor Scribner's reasons for uniting Diflaclme to Leptocldoa 

 seem to me good, as given in Proc. Acad. Phila. 303 (1891). Beu- 

 tham in some of his descriptions of Diplachne defines the floral 

 glume as 1-nerved, but in Flora Australiensis 7: 618 (1878) three 

 of the species there mentioned are described as having the floral 

 glume 3-nerved. 



The following sections have been proposed : 



A. Leptochloa proper. Spikelets flat, ovate or oval, sessile 

 in the regular rows on the numerous branches of a simple 

 panicle. 



Pseiidocynodon, one or two flowers to the spikelet. 

 EuleptocMoa, two or more flowers to the spikelet. 



a. Floral glume mucronate 1 



a. Floral glume emarginate (a) 



b. Sheaths sparingly hairy 2 



b. Sheaths smooth (c) 



c. Spikes 2.5 cm. long 3 



c. Spikes 3.4 cm. long 4 



B. Diplaclme as a section. Spikes of the panicle long and 

 slender, spikelets almost linear, scattered along the 



