42 Mr. Woods ou the Genera of European Grasse.s. 



12. Bri::a. Glumes nearly equal, broad, boat-shaped. Outer palea navicular, 

 heart-shaped, ventricose, keelless, obtuse, unarmed. Glumes and palea- 

 membranous with a scariose margin. Seed obovate, free. 



lo. Ci/nosurus. Spicuke attached to a neutral spike or spieula of many 

 glumes ! Fertile spieula 1- or more-flowered. Glumes scariose, with 

 a strong membranous keel. Outer palea membranous, with a terminal 

 seta. Panicle or spike one-sided. 



14. DaetifUs. Glumes many-flowered; outer keeled, herbaceo-membranous, 

 taper-pointed ; inner smaller, scariose. Outer palea keeled, with a ter- 

 minal seta. Spiculœ crowded. Panicle one-sided. 



15. Festtica. GUuues thinner than outer palea, which is very acute, or fur- 



nished with a point or seta, at, or very close to, the extremity. Spicnhe 

 subcylindrical, scattered. Panicle one-sided. 

 JG. Brotnus. Outer palea like the glumes, herbaceous, with a scariose mar- 

 gin, subcylindrical, ribbed, with a seta founded on 3 nerves from below 

 the tip. Panicle equal all round. Seed linear, convex, crestetl, attached 

 to the inner palea. 



It is very difticult to establish good generic characters among the Fvstaeu- 

 ceœ. Kœleria appears to me to form a natural group, of which some of the 

 species are armed and some are not, and there does not want a slight ditter- 

 enee of habit between these two divisions. The first form the genus AiroeJtloa 

 of Link, of which A', cristata may be taken as tlie type. The second trenches 

 very closely upon Trisetum. The species of this genus have been ranked witli 

 yiira, Festucu, Phalaris, Alnpecurus, Holcus, Trisetum, Bromus, Dactylls, and 

 Ci/nosurus. Kœleria macUenta, with its very unequal glumes, is perhaps nearly 

 allied to Fesfaca Myitras, and I endeavour in vain to trace in the characters 

 given by Kunth, any difference between these genera, unless, indeed, it be in 

 the seed, which, according to him, is free in this genus, and attached in Fts- 

 fitca to tlie inner palea. Sir J. E. Smith will not allow this character in 

 Festuca, and it certainly does not exist in all tlie species. The crowded and 

 shortened spiculcC of Kœleria are the circumstances which first strike the eye, 

 and on these and on the compressed and keeled florets we must rely for rhe 

 distinction. From Trisetum it differs in the arm, which is an awn in that 



