46 Mr. Woods on the Genera of European Grasses. 



do not descend to the base of the palea. It is perhaps this structure which 

 has induced Palisot de Beauvois to consider it as an awn, but it is by no 

 means fragile at the point of junction with the palea, and something of the 

 sort maybe traced in some species oi Festuca. 



Hordeace^. 



These are united among themselves, and separated from others by the in- 

 florescence, the spiculse being many-flowered, sessile, or very nearly so, on 

 opposite sides of a channelled and toothed rachis, each tooth being the recep- 

 tacle of one or more spiculse, which is received in the channel above. The 

 exceptions are in Hordeum and some species of Elymus, where the spiculse 

 are only one-flowered, and in Triticum Nardus and T. unilaterale, where the 

 spike is one-sided. I should not be very averse to joining these plants with 

 Festuca, only that I cannot well separate them from T. Poa and T. tenellum. 

 .The latter has sometimes a branched spike, which, however, is not one-sided. 

 The union of these two deviations from the type of the tribe, viz. of a branched 

 rachis and one-sided inflorescence, has led me to place Triticum maritimwn 

 (auct.) and Festuca divaricata, as I have already mentioned, with Festuca. 

 Gaudinia fragilis is, I think, the only plant among those which form the sub- 

 ject of this essay, which has the technical character of this tribe without 

 belonging to it. The genera are : 



1. Brachypodium. Spiculae distant, solitary, on a short stalk. Glumes un- 



equal, the inner much smaller than the adjacent palea. Outer palea 

 ribbed, setigerous. 



2. Lolium. Spiculae placed edgewise on the rachis ! Inferior glume very 



minute, or wanting, except in the terminal spicula. 



3. Triticum. Spiculae solitary. Glumes opposite, nearly equal, embracing 



the florets. 



4. Secale. Spiculee solitary. Glumes very narrow. Outer palea tapering 



into a long seta. 



5. ^gilops. Glumes somewhat oblique. These and the outer palea similar, 



turgid, ending in several rigid setae. 



6. Elymus. Spiculae 2 or 3 together ; each of 2 or more perfect florets. 



