52 COLONEL MUNRO'S MONOtillAPIl OF THE BAMBUSACE^. 



and not thicker than packing-threads, although they have several branches at each node 

 of the nsual thickness. This may possil)ly be a peculiar state of one of the species 

 already described ; it appears to mo, however, to differ from all the four species which 

 have a simple fringe of longish tibrcs at the mouth of the vagina). M. hrevispico is dis- 

 tinguished by having hairy vagina;. M. Clausseni has leaves hairy below. M. speciosa 

 lias longer and I)roader leaves, with the vagina' transversely rugose ; and, finally, M. ter- 

 nota would appear to differ in having smoother l)ranchcs, much thicker stems, and 

 longer and broader leaves, with more numerous secondary nerves below. 



VII. Chusquea. 



Kunth, Syn. Plant, ^quin. i. 252 (1822); Enum. 427; Eudl. Gen. Plan. no. 900. Rettbergia, Raddi, 

 Agrost. Bras. 17, t. i. fig. 1, Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. 535. Dendragrostis, Xees in Liimaja, ix. 

 487. Nasti, sp., H. B. K., nov. gen. et sp. ; RcEm. et Sch. /. c. 7. 2. 13G0. Arunditiaria sp., Nees 

 in Mart. Fl. Bras. 525. Arundinis sp., Poir. Encycl. 



SpicultE deorsum imperfecta:, (exc. Ch. Venezuela;) racemo pediccUataj, intra glumas sessiles, rhachilla 

 obsok'ta, 3-flor?e, vol rarissime in statu abiiormali l-floric, flosculis 2 (vel in Ch. ollgophylla subiude 3) 

 inferioribus unipaleaceis, ncutris; terminuli bipaleaceo hermaphrodito. Interdiim in C. andina, 

 C. tenella et C. capitulijlora spiculse 4-florie, flosculis duobus tcrminalibus perfcctis. Interdum (teste 

 Raddi) in C. Gaudichaudii "spiculse monoicae, maseulse et foeminete in eadem panicula sparsae." 

 Glumes 2, vel fere obsoletse [Dendragrostis, Nees), vel parvaj vel elongatse (in C. tenuifiora et C.ari- 

 stata spiculam aequantcs et superantes), membranacese, paucinerv'cs. Flosculi 2 neutri, 1-7-nerves, 

 plerumque acuti, ssepe mucronati. " Hermaphroditi palcaj 2 meinbranaccie, subicquales; inferior 

 snbcarinato-concava, acuto-niucronata, plerumque multincrvia; superior pariucrvia, dorso superne 

 sulcato-subbicarinata, emarginato-bifida." Stamina 3. Squamulce 3, plerumque obtusa; et apice cili. 

 atffi, membranacea;, nervosae vel eucrvosce, subaqualcs. Styli 1-2, plerumque ad basin usque discreti, 

 breves, stigmatibus vel pilosis vel interne plumosis vel villosis, pilis ramosis. Curyopsis liiieari- 

 oblonga, compressa vel teres, glabra, libera. 



Gramina, orbis novi, in Mexico tropica, Panama, insulis Caribba;is, et America australi, tropica et 

 extratropica, usque ad gradum 42° lat. aust. ; nunc in locis maritimis, nunc in regionibus montanis 

 excelsis crescentia. Culmus, in Ch. andina nanus, 2-pcdalis, in plurimis suffruticosus vel arborcscens, 

 6-20-pedalis, interdum altissimus, scaudeus, ramis fasciculatis sxpe peudeiitibus. Folia plcnimque 

 angusta et parva, interdum minima, brevissime petiolata et articulata, vcnulis transvcrsis subtus 

 nullis vel obscuris, vel raro plus minus conspicuis. Vagina plerumque efimbriatie, in Ch. tenella, 

 C. simpUciJlora, et forsan aliis fimbriatse. Inflorescentia terminalis, vel racemus subsimplcx, vel 

 panicula plus minus dcpauperata, vel thyrsoidca, vel panicula dccomposita, ramis adprcssis aut diva- 

 ricatis, vel in sect. 2 panicula subrotunda, capitulum rcferens. 



T have already, at page 13, referred to the interesting and suggestive fact of the re- 

 semblance borne by several species of this genus and its close ally IPlanotia to some 

 species of Panicum, occasioned, as I imagine, by the terminal flower of the spicula, as 

 in all Panicea3, being the most perfect one. I have examined numerous spiculae of dif- 

 ferent species of Chusquea and JPlanotia, and I have never discovered the least trace of an 

 elongation of the axis into the terminal imj)erl'ect flower, which is, I believe, universally, 

 except perhaps in some few genera of Jiamboos, found in all other genera of the great 

 tribe of grasses called " Poaceae" by Robert Brown in his remarks on the Botany of Terra 

 Australis. From the tribe Paniceae, which contains all the remaining genera of grasses, 



