ME. G. BENTHAM ON GEAMINEiE. 39 



glume (corresponding to the third of Panicum) usually encloses 

 a palea or a male flower — a circumstance unusual in the Order, 

 where the exposed glumes are almost always empty. Prom these 

 I cannot separate g^nerically the South- American Leptocoryphium, 

 Nees, which, besides some slight specific characters, only differs 

 from the North-American species in the second glume being con- 

 stantly, instead of occasionally only, empty. The genus Anthce- 

 nantia thus constituted includes three species — A. villosa, Beauv. 

 {Awlaxanthus ciliatus, Ell., Panicum ignoratum, Kunth), A. rufa, 

 Benth. (Aulaxanthits rufus, Ell., Panicum rufum, Kunth), and 

 A. lanata, Benth. {Paspdlum lanatum, H. B. K., Milium lanatum, 

 Kunth, Leptocoryphiiim lanatum and L. molle, Nees). 



4. Amphicahpum, Kunth, with spikelets unisexual by abortion 

 and a peculiar inflorescence, remains limited to the single North- 

 American species on which the genus was founded. 



5. Eeiochloa, H. B. K. (a name having the right of priority 

 over CEdipachne, Link, and Helopus, Trin.), has the habit rather of 

 the section BracTiiaria oi Panicum than of Paspalum, but wants the 

 small lower glume of the former genus, and difiers generally from 

 both in a peculiar callous thickening of the pedicel at the articu- 

 tion. There are, however, a very few species with more or less 

 of this callosity, which on other accounts cannot well be separated 

 from Panicum. The flowering glume has also the peculiar point 

 on the obtuse apex observable in Panictim helopus, Trin., and in a 

 few others, and supposed to characterize a section or genus Uro- 

 chloa. It is, however, an uncertain character, both in Eriocliloa 

 and in Panicum. Nearly twenty supposed species of P]riocTiloa 

 have been described ; but the greater number of them are scarcely 

 even varieties of the H. polystachya, H. B. K., which is widely 

 spread over the warmer regions of the Old as well as the New 

 World, and known under the various names of JSJ. punctata, H. 

 annulata, &c. There appear also to be at least four really distinct 

 species — E. distachya, H. B. K., and PI. grandiflora {Helopus, 

 Trin.) from tropical America, H. trichopus, Hochst., from tropical 

 Africa, and PJ. villosa, Kunth, from eastern Asia. 



6. Beckmanhia, Host, is a single species, ranging from eastern 

 Europe across Eussian Asia to North America. It has been 

 usually placed in Phalaridese, a tribe with which it appears to me 

 to have but little connection. The habit and inflorescence are 

 those of Panicum colonwm ; but it is exceptional in PanicesB as 

 having both the flowers hermaphrodite; the lowest flower is. 



