GRAMINEA §27 



3-anclrous, ? abortive : the rudiments long-liairy. Omty 3-coccou8,.with as many central,, 

 sterile pistils ; style 3-fid : stigma 2-fid. Garpids medianicide. — Stems long, leafy, creep-, 

 iny, or "floating ;" leaves reeurved-apreading, broadly linear-acuminate, bearded-ciliate at 

 the clasping base ; peduncles short, lateral, simple, exceeded by the basilar bract ; flowers 

 in a pea-sized cluster, exceeded by the oblong, cuspidate, glumaoeous, hairy bractlets, (J and 

 $ in pairs, the former pedicellate. 



2. T. fluviatilis, Jubl. Stem 4"-12", leaves 4"'-8"', peduncle 3"'-4"' long; glumes 

 brownish, membranaceous. — Hab. Trinidad !, CV. : [Guiana, Brazil!]. 



CXXXV. GRAMINEiE. 



Flowers in spikelets, apetalous, enclosed by glumaceous bracts : the primary bracts (the, 

 glumes) distichous along the axis (the rhachis), the secondary (the palese) alternating with 

 the former, single below the minute 2 (3-0) sepals (the lodiculae), usually 2-nerved. Stamens 

 usually 3, hypogynous. Ovan/ simple : ovule single, lateral : style mostly 2-cleft : stigmas 

 bearing collecting hairs. Fruit a caryopsis. Embryo on the outside of the amylaceous al- 

 bumen, with a dorsal appendage (the soutellum). — Stelti {ii\i\as) jointed: internodes hol- 

 low : leaves distichous : sheath split, often with a stipnlar appendage (the ligule) at the 

 base of the blade ; spikelets paniculate or spicate. 



The Cerealia, or corn-plants, cultivated in the West Indies, are : maize, or Indian corn ; 

 (Zea), Guinea-corn (Sorghum), Chinese com {Setaria italica), millet {Panicum miliaceum), • 

 rice {Oryza saliva), the latter rarely, Panicum maximum is cultivated for fodder. Excel- , 

 lent pasture-grasses are Panicum molle, Paspalum compressum and notatum (while other 

 Paspala, e. g. P. cotijugatum and filiforme, are refused by cattle), Jnthephora elegans. . 

 lu the sugar-cane [Saccharum qfficinarum) and some other grasses the gum of the sap 

 is replaced by sugar. An aromatic principle exists in Vetiveria. Silex is abundant in the , 

 nodes of the bamboo (Bambnsa), and it occurs generally in the leaf-sheaths. The bamboo , 

 affords fibre, and is, as well as cane {Arundo), employed' for thatches, poles, and living 

 fences. 



In the description of the bracts of grasses I adopt here the terms lately proposed by Mr. 

 A. Brown, as being more in accordance with the homologous organs of Oyperacece. Hence 

 all bracts proceeding from the rhachis of the spikeiet ai-e called glumes (comprising " glumse 

 et palese inferiores " of former authors), while the term palea is confined to the special bract- . 

 let of the flower (formerly " palea superior"). The glumes again are either sterile (formerly 

 "glumse et flores steriles inferiores"), or fertile ("palese inferiores"), or imperfect ("flores 

 abortivi superiores"). The number of flowers is to be determined from such glumes only 

 as are provided with sexual organs. 



TaiBE I. POACEM, PL. Br.— Lowest- or single fertilcglum-e placid above the lowest sterile 

 glume of the spikelet: rhachis usually produced beyond the uppertnost) often imperfect 



SuBTRiBE 1. BAMBVSEM. — Spikelets inserted into the excavated axis. Sterile' 

 glumes usually more than two, fertile coriaceous. Stamens mostly 6 or more. Stigmas 

 projecting from the flower at or below its summit. Embryo minute.— Stem mostly 

 woody. 



1. PAKIANA, ^a«;.. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, $ pedicellate, dorsally compressed, whorled around the central ses- 

 sile? : pedicels dilated, cohering. Sterile giurrtes of ,?2, obliquely laterai herbaceous, of? 

 membranaceous, lertile glume and palea of ? indurated : stigmas 2, sessile.— Shrubby 

 grasses; leaves broad; clusters of spikelets in a contiguous spike. 



1. P. sylvestris, Ns. Tube of pedicels pubescent, chiefly at the base; J sterile 

 glumes little shorter than the flower, lanceolate-acuminate.— The leaves of the Brazilian 

 species, as described by Nees, are " oblong, acuminate, acute at' the base, scabrous at the 

 mart'in •" our specimen is devoid of leaves, presenting scapes, rootmg at, the branched base. 



