ME. G. BENTHAM ON GEAMIlfEJE. 51 



lian species, of which one extends to New Zealand and New- 

 Caledonia, with a fourth from the coasts of tropical Asia closely 

 allied to one of the Australian ones ; 24. Oltba, Linn., about 

 twenty species, of which one is tropical African, the remainder 

 tropical American, including as a section Lithachne, Beauv. 

 {Strephium, Schrad., Baddia, Bertol.) ; 25. Phaetjs, Linn., five 

 American species; 26. Leptaspis, Br., three or four tropical species 

 from Africa, Asia, or Australia, a genus nearly allied to, but per- 

 fectly distinct from, Pharus ; 27. Lygeum, Linn., a single maritime 

 species from the Mediterranean region ; 28. Steeptoch.sta, 

 Schrad. {Lepideilema, Trin.), and 29. Anomochloa, Brongn., 

 both single Brazilian species. 



Tribe II. Matdejb. 



The grasses composing this tribe are usually erect and taU, with 

 flat, long or broad leaves, the spikelets always unisexual, the 

 males, in all except Pariana, in the upper part of the plant or of 

 the inflorescences, the females at the base or in the lower axils, 

 the grain, in all except Zea, enclosed in a hard stony case, formed 

 Tariously of an outer glume or of a subtending bract. Where 

 there are several fruiting spikelets in one inflorescence they are 

 superposed, and each one falls away separately with the internode 

 to which it is attached, the rhacbis of the spike disarticulating at 

 each node. The male spikelets either wither away or remain 

 persistent above at the end of the stem or on the top of the 

 uppermost fruiting spikelet. The tribe is thus perfectly well 

 defined and quite distinct from any other ; and the eight following 

 genera of which it is composed, all tropical or American, and 

 mostly small or monotypic, are likewise marked by positive cha- 

 racters. 



1. Paeiana, Aubl., an American genus of about ten species, is 

 in many respects anomalous. The females, as in the other genera, 

 are single at each node of the articulate inflorescence ; but the 

 male spikelets, instead of forming a terminal panicle, surround 

 the female at each node and fall away with it. The stamens 

 are also indefinite in number, ten to twenty in the spikelets 

 examined, but Nees found as many as forty ; whilst in all the 

 other genera of the tribe there are only the normal three. 

 Doell describes the female flower as having five lodicules ; but 

 here there is probably a mistake. I have never been able to 

 see more than three, which are rather large; but there are 



