105 



Tribe 5. Zoysibje. — Spikelets hermaphrodite or some imperfect, 

 with inarticulate rhachis of the simple spike, which is furnished with 

 joints consisting of a series, or fasciculate. Glumes, flowering, 

 membranous, often smaller than the empty ones and hyaline. 



Subtribe 1. AnthephorecB. — Spikelets pedicellate, 3, or numerous 

 crowded together in a deciduous fascicle. Glumes, the flowering 

 sometimes a little longer than tie empty ones, sometimes shorter and 

 hyaline. Example : Tragus racemosus, the small Burr-grass. 



Subtribe 2. JEuzoysiem. — Spikelets placed singly upon a pedicel, 

 more rarely in pairs. Glumes, flowering shorter than the empty ones 

 and hyaline. Examples : Perotis: rara, the Comet-grass ; and Zoysia 

 'pungens, the Coast Couch-grass. 



Tribe 6. Asdbopogonb^. — Spikelets along the rhachis of the 

 spike or branches of the panicle most often in pairs, or the terminal 

 ones in triplets. Spikelets in each pair homogamoufe or heterogamous. 

 Glumes, flowering smaller than the empty ones, hyaline, often 

 furnished with an awn. Examples : Imperata (see " Blady Grass "), 

 Saccharum (see " Sugar-cane ") ; Dimeria, a grass resembling a 

 Chloris common about Cairns ; Memarthria, a common grass on 

 swampy land ; Andro'pogon (see the Blue Grass), and Anthistiria 

 (see " Kangaroo-grass," or the tall Oat-grass of the Darling Downs). 



Sebies B. POACEiE. 

 Pedicel continuous below the glumes. Ehachilla often articulate 

 above the lower persistent glumes, continued beyond the fertile 

 flowers, stipitifbrm or bearing either empty glumes or imperfect 

 flowers, or sometimes there is a single terminal fertile flower as in the 

 case of the Panicaceae, but separating joint by joint with its own 

 glume from the empty persistent glumes. 



Mr. Bentham says : — " The main charaetera of Poaceae consist, iBrstW, in the 

 want of any articulation of the pedicel below the lower empty glumes, which remain 

 persistent after the fruiting one has fallen away, or f^ away separately ; and, 

 secondly, in the male or imperfect or rudimentary flowers, when present, being above, 

 not below, the fertile one. The former character is all but universal; but from the 

 latter one exceptions are not very rare, besides that, where there is onljr one flower 

 without any continuation of the rhachilla beyond it, the character entirely fails. I 

 should add that- in some tribes of Poaoese there are two or more perfect flowers in the 

 spikelet, which is not the case in Panicaoese." 



Tribe 7. Phaiabide^. — Flowers single, terminal, hermaphrodite. 

 Glumes 6 (or 5 and palea), 1-nerved or carinate. Examples : 

 Microl<ena stipoides,t1a.e Meadow Rice-grass ; and Phalaris canariensis, 

 the Canary-grass. 



Tribe 8. AaEOSTiDEi!. — Spikelets with single flowers, rhachilla 

 naked beyond the flower or prolonged into a brisfle or stipes. 



Subtribe 1. Stipea, — ^Panicle loose or irregularly spiciform. 

 Glames flowering usuaily terminated in an awn, fruiting closely 

 investing the caryopsis (grain). Rhachilla not prolonged beyond 

 the flower. Examples : Aristida, the Three- Awned Spear-grasses ; 

 ami Stipa verticillata, the Bamboo-grass so common in mountain 



scrubs. 



Subtribe 2. Phleoide/s. — Panicle spike-like, compact, cylindrical 

 or subglobose. Glumea, flowering mutieus or t«rminated by 1 to 3 

 awns fruiting loosely enclosing the grain. Rhachilla sometimies pro- 

 longed. Eicample : Uckinopogon ovatus, the Rough-bearded Grass. 



