94 MB. G. BENTHAM ON GEAMINEJE. 



Nees, in which these awns are particularly conspicuous. The 

 African species referred by Nees to a section Achneria oi Mriachne, 

 form a distinct genus of Avenese, for which Munro has retained 

 this n&me AcJmeria, the original genus Achneria of Beauvois having 

 been proposed for those true Australian species of Uriachne which 

 have uo awn or only a very small one. 



Tribe X. Ateneje. 



This tribe has been more generally recognized and subjected to 

 less variations than most of the others. Its general characters — 

 the paniculate inflorescence, the spikelets with two or more per- 

 fect flowers, the rhachilla"produced beyond the upper flower, and 

 a twisted awn to the flowering glume either dorsal or terminal 

 between the two lobes or teeth of the glume — sufi'er fewer excep- 

 tions than usual. Ai7-a alone has no continuation of the rhachilla ; 

 and Anisopogoii alone has only one perfect flower in the spikelets. 

 Of the following sixteen genera, the first eleven have the awn 

 dorsal and the lowest flower hermaphrodite ; the next three have 

 the male or sterile flower below the perfect one ; and the last two 

 have the lowest flower hermaphrodite and the awn terminal. 



1. AiEA, Linn,, was once made to include GorynepJiorus, Des- 

 champsia, and indeed almost all the Avenese with loosely panicu- 

 late inflorescence and small two-flowered spikelets, but has since 

 been so thoroughly dismembered by various European botanists 

 as not to leave a single species to represent the old Linnean 

 name. Taking, however, the widely spread A. oaryophyllea, Linn., 

 as a genuine type, and adding to it five or six European species, 

 we have a natural genus of elegant, slender, mostly annual grasses 

 with fine filiform leaves, the small spikelets always two-flowered 

 without any continuation of the rhachilla beyond the upper flower, 

 the dorsal awn of the flowering glumes rarely wanting, and the 

 ripe grain often adhering to the palea ; the latter character, how- 

 ever, is always uncertain. , These six or seven species have all 

 been made the types of supposed distinct genera. A. caryopliyllea, 

 Linn., and A, prcBCox, Linn., considered as typical Aircz by Par- 

 latore and others, form the genus Fussia, Schur, in which the two 

 flowers are closely contiguous and the flowering glumes usually 

 awned. Morinia, Parlat., is the A. Tenorii, Gruss., distinguished 

 by the absence of the awn ; but Q-ussone has shown that it varies 

 with or without the awn. Antinoria, Parlat., is the A. agrostidea, 

 Lois., with the rhachilla more or less lengthened between the 



