4:oO CXLII. GEAMINE^. 



Floweriug 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. — JS^ees, I. c. p. 273, siil) Eriachne. 



Slender grasses, resembling .4iVa, and differing in the absence of a dorsal 

 or basal awn. — 7 Cape species. 



I think this genus would be more correctly placed in FestiicacecE. In 

 true Eriachne the outer glumes are many-nerved ; in the 7 Cape species 

 they are 1- or 3-nerved. 



5G. 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.— i\^e^5, I. c. p. 272. 



A. caryopliiiUea, 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. — Nees, I.e. 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. {TrirhapMs 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 

 glumes 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 awm, rising 

 from the mid nerve ; palea 2-keeled, 2-fid. — JVees, I. c. p. 345. 



Grasses resembling Danthonice. — 6 Cape species. 



59. AVENA, Linn. 



Spikelets 2-many-flowered, panicled. Outer glumes un- 

 equal, rigidly membranous, often longer than the flowering, 

 lower 1-0 -nerved, upper 3-11-nerved. Flowering glume sub- 



