l4i ME. G. BENTHAM ON GEAMIltfi^. 



fotes on G-ramineEe. By GtEOege Bentham, P.E.S. 

 [Read November 3, 1881.] 

 GEAsimEiE, SO long believed to be the largest Order amongst 

 Monocotyledons, must now yield the palm to Orchidefe in respect 

 of number of species ; but they must still be acknowledged as 

 immensely predominant, as well in individual numbers as in the 

 part they take in the vegetation of the globe. The great ma,iority 

 of Orchidese are very local, and amongst the few that are spread 

 over wider areas it is frequently only in a few individuals dotted 

 here and there; whilst a considerable proportion of Gramineas are 

 almost cosmopolitan in their geographical distribution within or 

 without the tropics, often covering the ground with innumerable 

 individuals. OrchidesB are difficult to preserve ; collectors bring 

 home but few specimens from their chief stations in tropical 

 lands, aud those few often imperfect. Their study is therefore 

 surrounded by many impediments, and, with the exception of the 

 few European ones, is in the hands of very few botanists; whilst 

 G-rasses, easily dried, abound in herbaria in specimens readily ex- 

 hibiting their most essential characters ; and every local botanist 

 considers himself perfectly competent to describe as new species or 

 genera siiggested only by comparison with the few forms known 

 to him from the same limited locality. The consequence is that 

 amongst the large number of new species of Orchidete described 

 of late years the great majority (always excepting garden hybrids 

 or varieties) appear to be really distinct ; whilst the number of 

 bad species and genera of G-raminese with which science has been 

 overwhelmed is truly appalling. Looking to the future, it is only 

 probable that the preponderance in number of species of Orchidese 

 over Gramineae is likely to be greatly increased as well by new 

 discoveries among the former, as by a critical revision of old 

 species of the latter. On the other hand, although the interest 

 in Orchideas has been so much intensified of late years, as well by 

 the extent to which they are cultivated as by the singularities 

 observed in their fertilizing-apparatus, yet their importance in 

 the study of the history and development of vegetation, and in 

 their application to the uses of man, remains as nothing compared 

 to that of Gramineffi. 



This paramount importance of the latter Order in an economical 

 point of view has called forth innumerable treatises, memoirs, and 

 essays on cereals, on forage and other cultivated grasses, on 



