Mr. Woods on the Genera of European Grasses. 5 



supporting the lociistee or spiculae. Other botanists, among whom we may 

 reckon Kunth, apply the term axis to the stalk supporting the separate florets 

 within the calyx, and it is in this latter sense that I have used it. 



LocusTA is the word used by Ray, and adopted by P. de Beauvois and by 

 Brown for what Linnaeus called spicula, and Sir J. E. Smith a spikelet. I feel 

 the want of a word which may be applied with equal propriety to this part in 

 the one-flowered grasses as well as in the many-flowered, but am unwilling to 

 adopt a term already applied to two distinct objects in natural history. I 

 have therefore made use of spicula, even when there is only one flower. 



Glume. According to Linnaeus the calyx of grasses is a glume composed of 

 two valves. Jussieu also uses the term glume as expressive of the whole organ. 

 P. de Beauvois, on the contrary, names the whole tegmen, (or in French, bale,) 

 and describes it as consisting of two glumes. Kunth also calls each part a 

 glume, and I follow him in this as the most convenient nomenclature. As to 

 whether or not it should be considered as a calyx, this must be determined on 

 the general principle of applying that term to the common envelope of a com- 

 pound flower, or confining it merely to a simple one. If we determine upon 

 the latter, we have ready for us the word involucrum ; but as some grasses 

 have another exterior covering, to which we can hardly apply any other term 

 than involucrum, I have preferred following the terminology of Linneeus, 

 which is sanctioned by custom, without undertaking to defend its strict pro- 

 priety. Some botanists have contended that these glumes are abortive florets, 

 and there can be no doubt that in some genera abortive florets do assume 

 the appearance of glumes. In Ampelodesmus the inner glume is said some- 

 times to become a barren floret. Both circumstances tend to show the close 

 affinity of these organs. 



Palea. Within the glumes we arrive at the palece. With Linnaeus these 

 are the valves of a corolla. This part is called stragulum by P. de Beauvois, 

 and said to consist of two palece. In the Botanicon Gallicum the term glumcc 

 is applied to the outer coverings, and glumellce to the interior, and this also 

 is the phraseology,of Mertens and Koch. Gaudin calls the outer envelope a 

 calyx of two palece, and the inner a corolla of two paleolce. I think it an 

 objection to these diminutives that the inner covering is very frequently the 

 largest. Kunth calls these interior valves palece, and this is the expression 



