120 ME. a. BENTHAM ON GEAMINEJ3. 



to two or one. The habit is nearly that of the section JBromelica 

 of Melica. 



Our seventh subtribe Centotheceoe is formed of a small number 

 of tropical grasses, several of which have been occasionally re- 

 ferred to Bambusese, but expelled from that tribe by all vrho have 

 specially worked at it. The structure of the spikelet is that of 

 some EufestucesB or Meliceae ; but the foliage is unusual, the 

 lamina of the leaf is broad and flat, and between the numerous 

 longitudinal veins are small transverse veinlets not observed in 

 any others of the Order except in a few Bambusese. There is, 

 however, none of that articulation of the lamina on the leaf-sheath 

 which is almost universal in the latter tribe. The Centothecese 

 comprise five genera. 



45. Centotheca, Desv., has two or three species from the tro- 

 pical regions of the Old World. They are tall grasses with a 

 loose panicle, the spikelets awnless with usually more than two 

 flowers, without any, or with only one empty glume above them. 

 In the common C. lappacea, Desv., the flowering glumes have on 

 their back a few reflexed rigid hairs or bristles ; and that has 

 been generally relied upon as the essential character of the genus ; 

 but the bristles are sometimes reduced to one or two minute 

 tubercles, or even wanting, and in an African species (probably 

 the Foa mucronata, Beauv.) there is no trace of them, and yet 

 the plant is in all other respects an undoubted Centotheca. 



46. Oethoceada, Beauv., is a single tropical- American species, 

 with the habit, foliage, and inflorescence of Centotheca ; but the 

 spikelets contain only one, or rarely two, fertile flowers, the second 

 flower being usually male only ; the glumes have never the re- 

 versed bristles of Centotheca ; and the spikelets appear to be fre- 

 quently unisexual. 



47. LoPHATHEEUM, Brongn. {Acroelytrum and Allelotheca, 

 Steud.), has one, or perhaps two, species from tropical and 

 Eastern Asia. The habit, foliage, and inflorescence are those of 

 Centotheca and Orthoclada ; but above the single fertile flower 

 are several small empty, very shortly-awned glumes, densely 

 crowded in a little unilateral tuft or crest, bringing the genus 

 into connection with Meliceae. 



48. Steepto&tne, Beauv., is a single species sparingly scat- 

 tered over East India, tropical Africa and America, and the 

 southern states of North America, allied perhaps in some re- 

 spects to Lophatherum, but quite isolated in habit and a variety 



