36 THE TRUE GRASSES. 



empty ones, unawned or with a straight 

 awn from the point (seldom below). 



XI. Festucese. 



/?. Spikelets crowded in two close rows, forming a 

 one-sided spike or raceme with a continuous 



axis X. Chloridese. 



y. Spikelets in two (rarely more) opposite rows 

 forming an equilateral spike (very rarely uni- 

 lateral) XII. Hordese. 



b. Culm (at least at the base) woody, leaf -blade often 

 with a short, slender petiole articulated with the 

 sheath from which it finally separates. 



XIII. Bambusese. 



TEIBE I. MAYDE.E. 



The $ spikelets occupying the upper portion of the 

 inflorescence or of its divisions, the ? below. Grain 

 ellipsoidal or roundish, unfurrowed, with large embryo, 

 and enclosed in a hard capsule formed by the glumes or 

 part of the articulate rachis (Zea excepted), separating 

 finally as a false fruit. Starch-grains simple, polyhedral. 

 Culm tall, with pith ; leaves broad, flat. 



EEMARKS. Only the ? spikelets are arranged in true 

 spikes ; the $ spikes, so called, of Maize, etc., are, like the 

 spikes of Andropogonece, really racemes, since the spike- 

 lets corresponding to the primary branches of the axis 

 of the spike are distinctly pedicellate. But since these 

 pedicels bear secondary, sessile spikelets at their bases, 

 and these apparently are borne on the main axis, the 

 whole has the appearance of a spike. In Maydece the 

 term " spike" has been kept up also for the $ racemes 

 in order to avoid two different terms. 



A. $ spikes numerous in terminal panicles, 9 spikes in the 

 axils of leaves subtended by large membranaceous bracts 

 at the base. 



a. ? spikes of each leaf-axil free, articulated. 



l. Euchlsena. 



b. ? spikes of each leaf-axil grown together into a 

 continuous, compound and much thickened axis 

 (the "ear") 2. Zea. 



B. $ spikes solitary at the ends of the branchlets, ? below, 

 1-2, each of them reduced to a single spikelet ivhich is 



