8 GRAMINE^. 



kept in view is too iudefinite to aerve as a practical cluiractor; but 

 combining it with that proposed by Munro of tlie arti(;ulatiou in 

 the axis of the spikolet being below tlie spikelet itself (in the i)e(li- 

 cel) in Pauicacea?, and above the lowest glume or ncme in Poacew, 

 the exceptional forms are reduced to the lowest possible figure. 



" Knnth entirely gave up Hrown's groups and divided the order 

 into thirteen tribes, many of which were natural, fairly defined by 

 a combination of characters, and have been very generally adopted. 

 He attached too much importance to such characters as the separa- 

 tion of the sexes or the increase in the number of stamens; in the 

 general arrangement his removal of the Andro()ogoneai to a dis- 

 tance from the Panicea^ is disaj)proved of: and his describing lh)W- 

 ers as actually existing when only theoretically imagined is some- 

 times misleading. Nees generally adopted Kuntli's trihes. but 

 imi)roved tlie circrmscriptiou of some of them, and added two 

 or three small ones, 



"Fries, fi-llowed by Andersson, proposed for a primary division 

 of Graminea? that into Clisanthew, witli the flower (i.e.. the flower- 

 ing glume aiul piiici) closed and the elongated styles protruding at 

 the ai)ex, and Ei(njaiitli<'a>, with the glume and palea open at the 

 time of flowering and the short styles ])rotruding laterally. This 

 division is practically useless, as the flowers of most si)ecies oi)en 

 oidy for a very short time, and in dried specimens are almost always 

 closed: besides, the styles are usually sliuler and fugacious. The 

 long styles, moreover, would place the nuijority of the sul)tril>o 

 Seslerieii?, for instance, among I'anicacciv, when all their other 

 characters are those of Poacea?. 



" Fournicr rejects both Hrown's and Fries's primary divisions, 

 but proposes a new one foumled (m the position of the lowest glume 

 of the spikelet next to the main axis in Chloridcie and Ilordeaceiv, 

 and averted from it or exteriud in other tribes. Hut this rela- 

 tive |)osition cannot well be ascertained in loosely i)aniculate (ira- 

 minea», and in one-flowered spikelets it is often uncertain which is 

 to be regarded as tlu^ lower ghune. The total number of glumes in 

 the tribe Paniceae is variable, two, three, or four; the lowest in 

 h\'inian'(t, the highest in /'inn'nnn, and medium in Paspalnm. All 



