38 ME. a. BENTHA.M ON GBAMINEa!. 



complete variance with Lagasca's description. The genus Axo- 

 nopus, Beauv., sometimes given as a synonym of Ga&rfiJ-a, because 

 Beauvois had suggested that P. auremn might possibly be a con- 

 gener, was founded on various heterogeneous species of Paspalwn 

 and Panicum ; and the name has to be wholly expunged. 



Anastrophws, our third section, was proposed as a genus under 

 that name by Schlechtendahl, and inchides Nees's section Bigi- 

 tariecB or Doell's MmprostUon. It is characterized by the posi- 

 tion of the spikelets on the alternate margins of the narrow, 

 somewhat flexuose rhachis of the spike, so as to be rather di- 

 stichous than secund, and by their direction, the back of the flower- 

 ing glume and of the lower empty one being turned outwards or 

 away from the rhachis. The spikes are also generally several 

 close together at the end of the peduncle, as in the section Bigi- 

 taria of Panicum, suggesting to Nees his sectional name, which, 

 however, is inconvenient as being adjective in form, and too liable 

 to be confounded with the true Bigitaria. Some of the species 

 have, like Odbrera, long cilia on the spikes, but have otherwise all 

 the characters of Anastrophus, of which they might form a sub- 

 section under the name of Lappagopsis, given by Steudel to the 

 P. dissitifloricm, Trin., which he proposed as a distinct genus. The 

 several species which we would include in the subsection show a 

 curious diversity in the position of the cilia : in P. fastigiatwm, 

 Nees, they are long on the empty glumes, none on the rhachis ; 

 in P. senescens, Nees, short on the empty glumes, long on the 

 rhachis ; in P. dissitiflorum, Trin., long both on the rhachis and 

 on the empty glumes ; and in a few other species, referred by 

 Nees and by Doell to Cabrera, although without the peculiar 

 characters of Lagasca's genus, the rhachis alone is fringed with 

 long cilia, the glumes having none. 



Paspalum saceharoides, Trin., referred by Kunth to Panicum, 

 is one of those small-flowered species which seem to connect Pas- 

 palum with Panicum {Bigitaria), whilst the long silky hairs of the 

 spikes and the consistence of the glumes show an approach to the 

 AndropogonecB (Sacehareis). The arrangement of the spikelets 

 along the rhachis, the number of glumes, <fec. show a nearer 

 affinity to Paspalum than to any other genus. 



3. AifTHiENANTiA, Beauv. {Aulaxanthus, BIL), was founded upon 

 two North-American species, with the hairy inflorescence and 

 membranous glumes of the section Triahaohne of Panicum, but 

 without the small lowest glume of that genus j and the second 



