572 
CXIII. GR AMINE iE 
than to particularise the glume or glumes bearing the awns. 
Particulars on this point are given in the descriptions of the 
genera and species. — This natural Order, although not the most 
numerous in genera and species, is the most generally dispersed, 
almost reaching the altitudinal and latitudinal limits of flowering 
plants and covering more of the surface of the earth than any 
other class of plants. Moreover, it stands first in importance in 
the dietary of man and beast. 
The following conspectus and key are mainly adapted from Bentham and 
Hooker’s Genera Plantarum and Hooker’s Flora of British India. 
Conspectus of the Tribes (exceptions omitted). 
SERIES A. PANICACEJ£. Spikelets 1- or 2-flowered, if 2- 
flowered the upper flower fertile, the lower male or rudimentary. 
Stalk, of spikelet jointed below the empt}^ glumes. 
Tribe I. Paniceae. Spikelets usually hermaphrodite, spicate or 
paniculate. Rhachis of the inflorescence not jointed. Flower- 
ing glume not awned, hardened in the fruiting stage or at 
least stiffer than the outer ones. 
Tribe II. Zoysieae. Spikelets hermaphrodite or some imperfect. 
Rhachis not jointed. Spikes simple, solitary or in clusters. 
Flowering glume membranous, usually smaller than the 
empty ones and transparent. 
Tribe III. Andropogoneae. Spikelets in pairs or the terminal 
in threes, along the rhachis of a spike or the branches of 
a panicle. Flowers homogamous or heterogamous in each 
pair. Flowering glume smaller than the empty ones, trans- 
parent and often awned. 
SERIES B. POACEiE. Stalk of spikelet not jointed below the 
empty glumes. Rhachilla often jointed above the persistent lower 
glumes, produced beyond the fertile flowers in the form of a stalk 
or bearing empty glumes or imperfect flowers ; or sometimes, as 
in the Panicacece, bearing one terminal fertile flower, but which 
eventually disarticulates above the persistent empty glumes. 
Tribe IV. Phalarideae. Spikelets bearing one terminal, herma- 
phrodite flower. Glumes 6, or 5 and a pale, 1 -nerved or 
keeled. 
Tribe V. Agrostideae. Spikelets 1 -flowered. Rhachilla naked 
above the flower or produced in the form of a bristle or 
stalk. 
Sub-tribe 1. Stipeae. Panicle loose or spike-like. Flowering 
glume usually terminating in an awn, closely covering the 
grain in fruit. Rhachilla not produced beyond the flower. 
