Mr. Woods on the Genera of European Grasses. 45 



will form a better generic character than the form of the spiculae and the 

 number of florets, both of which vary greatly in the different species, and 

 even in the same. 



I am not at all clear that Cynosurus ought not to be divided into three 

 genera. C. crlstatus seems to have but little relation to C. echinatus and 

 C. elegans, and C. aureus (Lamarckia aurea of Moench and Kunth) differs 

 considerably from both. 



The habit of Dactylis seems to be very distinct, while its keeled paleee 

 separate it sufficiently from Festuca and their point from Poa. The crowded 

 position of the spiculee is also very characteristic. These characters unite to 

 a considerable degree in Poa Uttoralis, which has been placed by Willdenow 

 and Schrader in this genus. The keel, however, does not continue to the 

 base of the floret, and the outer glume is smaller, and certainly not more firm 

 than the inner. Kunth considers it as a genuine, but not a legitimate Poa ; a 

 distinction which I do not comprehend. The spiculie are strictly sessile on 

 opposite sides of an alternately flattened rachis, whose branches, however, 

 combine into a dense one-sided spike. 



Festuca is a genus comprehending two or three different appearances, which 

 are not easily united under one character, and which yet cannot well be sepa- 

 rated. The first tribe, the Mygalurus, or Vulpia of Link, has the outer palea 

 gradually tapering into a very long seta, and the glumes in general extremely 

 unequal. The second, of which Festuca ovina may be considered as the type, 

 has the glumes much more nearly equal, and the seta, where it exists, rising- 

 much more abruptly from the palea. This passes almost insensibly into those 

 which have the point a little below the extremity of the palea, as F.praten- 

 sis and F. elatior ; and there is another group approaching in appearance to 

 Poa. Kunth has two more groups, one of which is my Sclerochloa, but also 

 including F. diimricata and Triticum maritimum, two plants which I leave 

 with Festuca. Gaudin makes a division of those Festucas which have a point 

 not quite at the apex of the glume ; but in F. pratensis, which may be consi- 

 dered as the type of-the division, the awn sometimes adheres to the palea quite 

 to its extremity. 



The awn or seta in Bromus is not in general a mere continuation of the 

 midrib, but is strengthened by the union of two lateral ribs, which usually 



