4 
CLVII. GRAMINE^E (Stapf). 
(2 onsidered more expedient and serviceable for the purposes of a Colonial Flora 
t o adopt smaller genera on practical grounds than unwieldy large genera for 
theoretical reasons, and the more so as it has thus been possible to bring the 
genera of Andropogonece and Panicece in line with the genera of the Pooidece 
which on the whole have always been defined more narrowly. Fortunately 
many of those smaller genera of Andropogonece and Panicece have been recog- 
nised long ago by the earlier authors, so that apart from new discoveries it has 
only in a relatively small number of cases been necessary to introduce new 
generic names. Similar practical reasons have led to a slightly different dis- 
position of the genera (often subgenera and sections according to Hackel) of 
Andropogonece, among them particularly the recognition that the sexual pecu- 
liarities which play so important a part in Hackel’s system are neither suffi- 
ciently correlated with the general morphological characters, nor always easily 
detectable, and therefore not workable for practical purposes. 
Subfamily I. PANicoiDEiE. — Mature spikelets falling entire from their 
pedicels or with them (rarely subpersistent on a flat, indistinctly and tardily 
disarticulating rhachis : Stenotaphrum), all alike or differing in sex and struc- 
ture ; perfect spikelets with 2 heteromorphous florets, the upper $ , the lower 3 
or barren ; rhachilla not continued beyond the upper floret. 
Spikelets falling entire, singly or in clusters, occur in the following genera 
belonging to the second subfamily : Heleochloa sp., Alopecurus, all the Zoy-siece , 
Melanocenchris, Harpachne, Desmostachya, Fingerhuthia, Entoplocomia. 
Tribe I. MAYDEcE. — Sexes in different inflorescences on the same plant or the 
9 spikelets at the base of the inflorescence, the 3 above them. The 3 spike- 
lets in pairs, one sessile, the other pedicelled, or both ( very unequally) pedi- 
celled, in spike-like solitary or panicled racemes, 2-flowered ; glumes 
membranous to chartaceous, enclosing the florets ; valves more or less 
hyaline, awnless. The 9 spikelets solitary with or without a rudimentary 
pedicelled companion, 1 -flowered ; glumes firm, at least the lower which 
ultimately often becomes bony, or both thin and more or less hyaline ; valves 
hyaline, arvnless. 
Sexes in different inflorescences ; 3 spikelets in large 
terminal panicles ; 9 spikelets in axillary sheathed 
“ cobs,” consisting of several spikes whose axes 
are fused into a spongy more or less cylindrical 
body, their glumes hyaline ... ... ... ... 1 . Zea. 
Sexes not in different inflorescences ; 3 spikelets in 
several pairs, 9 solitary and somewhat distant 
from the 3 at the base of peduncled, more or less 
fascicled, terminal and axillary spike- like racemes ; 
the 9 enclosed in the usually globose or ovoid 
ivory- like capsuliform supporting sheath ... ... 2 . Coix. 
Tribe II. ANDROPOGONECE . — Spikelets usually in pairs, one sessile, the other 
pedicelled, very rarely both pedicelled, those of each pair alike as to sex 
(homogamous) or different (heterogamous) rarely 3 -nate or solitary 
(Monium, Cleistachne) on the axes of variously arranged, often spike-like, 
racemes. Glumes more or less rigid and firmer than the valves, and the 
lower always longer than the florets. Valves membranous, often hyaline, 
that of the upper floret awned or reduced to an awn or muticous ( all Rott- 
boellinse, many Saccharin®, rarely in other sub-tribes). 
The characters relied upon in the keys apply usually to the African genera 
only. 
