ME. G. BENTHAM ON GBAMINEJ!. 85 



tufted G-reek plant, with the spilielets flat as in Plialaris, but 

 otherwise showing nearly the structure of Phleuin. 



15. Phleum, Linn., about ten species from the temperate and 

 northern regions of the northern hemisphere or from Antarctic 

 America, is a well-known and already well-defined genus. It has 

 been proposed to separate generically Ghilochloa, Beauv. {AcJino- 

 don, Link), for the few species in which the rhachilla is produced 

 beyond the flower into a minute bristle ; the character, however, 

 is in this instance very trifling and uncertain. Aohnodonton, 

 Beauv., is P. tenue, Schrad., for which I can find no separate 

 generic character. The anomalous Phalaris trigyna, Host, appears 

 to have been an individual specimen of Phleum MicJielii, All., 

 having abnormally three style-branches instead of two. 



In a third small group or subtribe, SpoEOBOLEiE, I should pro- 

 pose to place Sporololus itself, with the three monotypic genera 

 Mihora, Coleantftus, and Phippsia. -The subtribe is not very 

 clearly defined ; but my previous endeavours to associate Sporo- 

 holus with Milium and Isachne, to which I shall recur further on, 

 proved still less satisfactory. The plants now grouped together 

 have small paniculate or almost racemose spikelets, awn less glumes, 

 no continuation of the rhachilla beyond the flower, and the ripe 

 grain only half enclosed in and readily falling away from the 

 glume — characters sometimes well marked, but in some species 

 rather vague. 



16. MiBOEA, Adans. (Ghamagrostis, Borkh., Sturmia, Pers., 

 Knappia, Sm.), is a dwarf slender tufted European annual, with 

 a simple spike and the lower empty glume at least as long as the 

 flowering one. 17. Colbanthtjs, Seid., is a minute annual, first 

 found in Bohemia, then in Norway, and more recently gathered 

 in the island of Sauvies at the mouth of the Oregon in North- 

 west America. It is very near Phippsia and Sporobolus ; but the 

 lower empty glumes are entirely deficient. It was first disco- 

 vered by Seidel, and distributed by him under the name of Cole- 

 anthus sultilis ; but Trattinick in publishing it (as reported by 

 Eoemer and Schultes) retained only Seidel's specific name, changing 

 the genus to Schmidtia. Ecemer and Schultes in their ' Systema ' 

 restored Seidel's name, which Sternberg, rather later, changed 

 again both generically and specifically to Schmidtia utriculosa. 

 Under these circumstances Seidel is now considered to have pub- 

 lished his Coleanthus sultilis sufficiently for general adoption, 

 more especially as another very different genus of Grasses has 



