DESCRIPTIONS OF THE TRIBES AND 
NERA. 
As an introduction to the series of illustrations 
which appear in American Grasses, a description of 
the several tribes and genera into which the order 
Gramineae is divided is here presented. The number 
and sequence of the tribes adopted by Hackel has been 
followed and with few exceptions the same is true of 
the genera. It has been aptly stated that the secret 
of success in the discrimination of grasses lies in being 
thoroughly conversant with the tribal and generic 
characters. The acquisiton of this knowledge is not 
difficult, and, when mastered, enables one to classify or 
to refer to its proper tribe and genus any grass he 
may meet—a power which adds greatly to the interest 
connected with the study of all plants. It is hoped 
that the matter here presented will at least assist the 
student of grasses in becoming better acquainted with 
’ the most important of all the orders in the vegetable 
kingdom—the true grasses. 
GRAMINEZ (GRASSES). 
Fibrous-rooted, annual or perennial, herbaceous (rarely woody) 
plants, with usually hollow, sae (rarely flattened), and 
jointed stems (culms) whose internodes for*more or less of their 
~~ are epee by the shueathclike basal portion of the two- 
rank d usually linear, parallel-veined leaves; flowers without 
any pected perianth, hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual, solitary 
or several together, in spikelets, which are arranged in panicles, 
racemes, or spikes, and which consist of a shortened axis (the 
baddies and two or more chaff-like, distichous, imbricated bracts 
(glumes), of which the first two, rarely one or none or more than _ 
- two, are empty (empty glumes) ; in the axil of each of the succeed- 
at Epperniceyy. is borne a bien 
7 
5 
