118 ME. 0. BENTHAM ON GEAMINE^. 



species (^. reptcms &c.) whici have the spikelets more or less 

 unisexual, the males usually flatter, longer, and with more flowers 

 than the females ; but this separation of the sexes is very 

 variable, and not always accompanied by any difference in habit. 

 Some species may be occasionally quite dioecious ; in others the 

 males and females are in different panicles on the same plant ; 

 others, again, are variously polygamous ; and here, as in the 

 Chilian Pow, the character is too inconstant to justify generic 

 or even sectional separation. Megastachya, Pourn., does not in- 

 clude JE. megastachya, Beau v. 5. Flatystachya, includes a few 

 Africaner Arabian species with broad, flat, many-flowered spikelets 

 with rather paleaceous glumes, and the rhachilla articulate as in 

 Cataclastos. Amongst these Munro would include as E. genicu- 

 lata the Uriza geniculata, Thunb., which in its thickened spikelets 

 appears intermediate between Briza and JSragrostis, but has the 

 prominently three-nerved glumes of the latter. 6. Sclerostachya, 

 has three African or Asiatic species. The paleaceous glumes and 

 articulate rhachilla are those of Flatystachya ; but the spikelets 

 are not so broad, and the rigid habit with long and rush-like or 

 short and pungent leaves are those oi ^luropus. 



36. Ipntjm, Philippi, is a single Chilian species unknown to 

 me. From the author's description, it would appear to differ 

 from the section Pteroessa {Cylindrostachyis) of Eragrostis in the 

 articulate rhachilla and in inflorescence. 



37. CuTAjTDA, Willk., is a genus proposed for the European or 

 North-African Festuca maritima, DC, F. philistcsa, Boiss., F. 

 memphitica, Boiss., F. divaricata, Desf, F. inorassata, Salzm., and 

 F. lanceolata, Eorsk., which, notwithstanding a general resem- 

 blance to Festuca in the shape of the spikelets, could not remain 

 in that genus without an essential alteration in its generic cha- 

 racter, the glumes being strongly keeled and three-nerved from 

 the base. The inflorescence is also peculiar. , 



38. Oreochloa, Link, is a single European mountain species, 

 formerly included in Sesleria, which it approaches in its short 

 compact inflorescence and the slightly elongated stigmas; but 

 there are no barren spikelets, the spike is simple, with almost 

 sessile bifarious spikelets like those of some species of Festuca 

 (Scleropoa), and the glumes are those of Eragrosteae. 



39. EcTEosiA, Br., comprises three or four Australian species 

 allied both to Eragrosteae and to Melicese, but technically rather 

 better placed in the former subtribe. 



