ME. G. BENTHAM ON GEAMINBJl. 45 



vaguely dlstinguialied cliiefly by their inflorescence and general 

 habit. Amongst the somewhat exceptional species are P. unci- 

 natum, Trin. (Echinolana polystacTiya, H. B. K.), in which the 

 three empty glumes are nearly equal to each other, though shorter 

 than the flowering ones, and P. •pterygodiwm, Trin. (forming the 

 genus Otachyriwm, Nees), in which the two lower empty glumes 

 are about equal, but shorter thau the third. In all the others the 

 lowest empty glume is much the shortest. Goleatxnia, from 

 extratropical South America, is proposed as a genus by Griaebach 

 as having dioecious flowers. I have not seen any specimen ; but 

 from his description it seems to be in all other respects a true 

 Panicum {Hupanicuni) ; and as he has only seen the male, evidently 

 with the flowers still young, he may have overlooked the pistil, or 

 its abortion may not be constant. At any rate that character 

 standing alone can scarcely be sufficient to separate it generically. 

 Several of the cultivated Millets are species of JSupanicum with 

 large, loose, often nodding panicles. 



(11) Tricholana (including Nees's genus Bhynchelytrum), raised 

 by Parlatore and some others to the rank of a genus, has the loose 

 panicle of Mupanicum ; but the fruiting glumes are not much 

 hardened, and the whole inflorescence is ciliate with long hairs 

 as in Trichachne, on which account the oldest known species, the 

 widely-spread P. Teneriffw, was originally published as a Saccha- 

 rum. There are now about fifteen species known, chiefly South- 

 African; but one, the above-mentioned P. TeneriffcB, extends to 

 the Mediterranean region, two are East-Indian, and two or three 

 South-American. Shynchelytrum, Steud., is a different genus 

 from Nees's, and belongs to the TristeginesB. 



8. IcHNANTHtrs, Beauv., is so closely allied in habit and general 

 character to some species of Panicum {Hupanicum) that it is 

 perhaps rather in deference to the authority of all the principal 

 recent agrostologists, than from any conviction of our own, that 

 we retain it as a distinct genus. The character is' a purely technical 

 one — a thin hyaline auricle or wing to the rhachilla on each side 

 close under the flowering glume, as is observed in some species 

 of Oyperus. In the species forming the section Macropteris of 

 Doell these auricles are often more than half as long as the glume 

 itself; in I. longiflora (Panicum longiflorum, Trin.) they are very 

 small, but prominent ; in 1. pallens and its allies, forming Doell's 

 section Micropteris, they are often scarcely perceptible, and 

 Fournier has restored these species to Panicum, though Muuro 



LINN. JOrnN. — BOTANY, TOl. XIX. P 



