SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF THE ORDER GRAMINE^E, 



GRASSES. Roots tufted and tibrous ; large succulent-rooted tussacs, or creep- 

 ing rhizomes. Culms hollow, knotted and closed at the joints, rounded. Leaves 

 alternate, usually distichous, very long or short, sheathing part of leaf split longi- 

 tudinally on one side, with generally a membranous appendage at the summit 

 called a ligule. Florets mostly perfect, imbricated on a common axis within a 

 calyx, the latter composed of two or more empty glumes, the whole forming a 

 spikelet. Flowers (stamens, pistil, and ovary) enclosed within two glumes, the 

 lower (flowering glume) generally keeled with one or more nerves, the upper 

 (palea) two-nerved, rarely one-nerved. Perianth probably represented by two to 

 three small scales, situated beneath the ovary. Stamens usually three, filaments 

 capillary, anthers attached by the back, versatile. Ovary one-celled, with one 

 erect ovule. Styles two, united at the base, stigmas feathery, with sometimes 

 branched stigmatic hairs. Fruit a grain, sometimes adhering to the palea. Seed 

 closely adhering to the pericarp, embryo 011 one side at the base of the albumen, 

 generally pear-shaped. 



A most important order of phaenogamous plants abundantly spread over the 

 surface of the earth, and exceeding in number of individuals any other order of 

 plants. The grain of several species form important articles of food for man, and 

 the aggregation of species as pasture supply food for numerous herbiverous animals, 

 and in many the fibrous part of their structure also offers an abundance of 

 economic material for the manufacture of various products, such as paper. 



A. Spikelets on the spines of globose, polygamous, involucrate heads. 5. Spinifex. 



B. Spikelets sessile, in 1 or 2 series, on one or both sides of a flattened rachis. 



Empty glumes or 1-3. 



Empty glumes 2 or 3, short ; flowering solitary, hard . 6'. Paspalum. 



Empty glume 1, margins connate ; flowering solitary, Palea 0. 9. Zoysia. 



Empty glumes 2, lanceolate ; flowering 3-16, awned . . 25. Triticum. 



Empty glume 0, or 2 bristles ; flowering 1-3 awned. . . 26. Gymnostichum. 



C. Spikelets never sessile and distichous, pedicelled, paiiicled or racemed. 



I. Empty glumes 3 or more, below the solitary hermaphrodite flowering one. 



Glumes 5 ; 4 empty, acuminate, 1 flowering, obtuse . .1. Ehrharta. 



Glumes 5 ; 2 empty, minute, 2 empty, awned, 1 flowering, 



acuminate. . . . . . . . . .2. Microlaena. 



Glumes 4. short, obtuse ; 2 empty, 1 male, upper herma- 

 phrodite . 8. Isachne. 



Glumes 4, mucronate or awned ; 2 empty, 1 male, upper, 



hermaphrodite . . . . . . . .7. Panicum. 



II. Empty glumes 2, below the solitary flowering one. 



a. Panicle dense, cylindric, spike-like, (see Poa anceps and Danthonia in III.) 



Empty glumes equal, flattened, Palea 0. Panicle soft, spici- 



form. , 3. Alopecurus. 



Empty glumes rigid, acuminate, Panicle reduced ;to an ovid, 



apinulose head . ...-".. .10. Echinopogon. 



