MAYDEJi;. 18 



Tribe L— MAYDEJE. 



Moiut'cious. The staminato spikelets paniculate, spicate or 

 solitary at the apex of the culm or its branches, the pistillate below, 

 spicate or solitary, disarticulating (except in Zea) with the joints of 

 the rachis. firain ellipsoidal, spherical, or obcompresseil, un- 

 furrowed, with large embryo, and often enclosed in a hard capsule 

 winch is composed either of the glumes or a part of the articulate 

 rachis. 



Culms usually tall, solid (without cavity); leaf-blades usually 

 broad and ilat. 



A. Pistillate spikes fasciculate, distinct, articulate. . 1. (37) 



B. Pistillate spikes of each leaf-axil grown together, form- 



ing a compound spike with a very thick axis. . 2. (38) 

 C Staminate and jiistillate spikelets in the same spike, 

 the axis articulate between each two fertile spike- 

 lets 3. (36) 



D. Pistillate spike usually reduced to a single spikelet, 

 wholly enclosed by the indurated sheath of the 

 subtending bract, the pedicel of the solitary stami- 

 nate spike issuing from tlie opening at the top . 4. (32) 

 1. (37). EUCHIJENA Schrad. Ind. Sem. llort. (Ju'tt. (1832). 

 ReiDia lirign. Ind. Sem. Ilort. Moden. (184{»). 



S})ikelets mona>cious, the staminate 2-ilowered. in pairs, one 

 subsessile, the other pedicellate, in the alternate notches of the 

 spikes of the terminal panicle; the pistillate 1-2-flowercd on 

 axillary sjjikes, each surrounded by leaflike bracts. I'he stami- 

 nate spikelets with 2 outer acute membranous glumes, each floral 

 glume also acute membranous, enclosing a hyaline palea. Stamens 

 3. Pistil rudimentary. The pistillate spikelets solitary, sessile on 

 alternate teeth of the rachis. first emjjty glume very broad, smooth, 

 coriaceous, enclosing the others and the slender rachis. second 

 glume not so firm, floral glume hyaline, enclosing a palea, other 

 glumes thin, empty. The pistillate spikelet nniy be said to con- 

 tain 2 fiowers, the lower neuter and the terminal fertile. Stami- 



