INTRODUCTORY. 9 



2. Having more than two florets in the spikelet it does not 

 belong to the Maydeae, Andropogoneae, Zoysieae. 

 Tristegineae, Paniceae, or Oryzeae. 



3. Not having four glumes it is not one of the Phalarideae. 



4. Having more than one floret it does not belong to the 

 Agrostideae. 



5. As the spikelets are not in rows it cannot be one of the 

 Chlorideae or Hordeae. 



6. It must consequently belong to either the Aveneae or 

 Festuceae. 



7. The glumes not being longer than the outer palea and 

 there being no dorsal awn, it must belong to the Festuceae. 



Our second key helps us to find the tribe more quickly. The 

 two glumes at once rule it out of three tribes. The " more 

 florets than one " eliminate the Agrostideae. Its panicle takes it 

 on to Aveneae and Festuceae, where again the absence of the dorsal 

 awn, etc., reduce it to the " spikelets otherwise " of the Festuceae, 

 a position which is confirmed when we read the description of 

 the tribe. 



In the chapter on The Tribes and their Genera (VI.) we refer 

 to the tabular arrangement of the Festuceae, where the panicle 

 enables us to pass four genera and land in " panicle diffuse, awn 

 of outer palea terminal, style terminal " of Festuca ; and we 

 verify the identification by reference to the description of that 

 genus, and the diagram of the floret on which the parts are shown 

 greatly magnified and opened out. Reference in a similar way 

 to the seventh chapter enables us to readily recognise the species 

 as Festuca ovina and verify our diagnosis by the description and 

 the drawing of the spikelet. Sheep's Fescue is a very small 

 grass, and if we can deal with its diminutive parts in this way we 

 shall have little difficulty with any other. 



It may be asked what is a tribe ? And perhaps — though it 

 would seem to be hardly necessary — it should be said that an 

 order is frequently divided into tribes, these being merely assem- 

 blages of genera, the genera consisting of species, the species in 



