450 
Q-RAMINEJE. 
15. AGROSTIS, Linn. 
Spikelets 1-flowered, arranged in a lax panicle. Empty glumes 
2, subequal, boat-shaped, awnless, usually longer than the flower. 
Flowering glume usually awned on the back ; pale minute, sometimes 
absent. Hypogynous scales 2, entire. Stamens 1-3. Stigmas nearly 
sessile, plumose, protruded from the side of the spikelet. Grain free, 
minute, terete. — Tufted grasses with slender leaves and minute flowers 
in lax panicles. Distrib. Nearly all in the temperate zone of both 
hemispheres. Species 50. 
1. A. tropica, Beauv. FI. Oucar. ii. 37, t. 80. Root and leaves not 
known. Culm slender, finely pilose. Panicle lax, 3-4 in. long ; 
branches short, ascending, decompound ; pedicels exceeding the spike- 
lets. Empty glumes in. long, lanceolate, subequal, pilose. Flower- 
ing glume much shorter, oblong, tricuspidate, with an awn from 
the back twice as long as itself. Pale minute, oblong. Kunth , 
Fnum. i. 222. 
Mauritius, Du Petit Thouars. Description taken entirely from Beauvois’ 
figures above quoted. Endemic. 
16. ARISTIDA , Linn. 
Spikelets 1-flowered, laxly panicled. Empty glumes 2, membranous, 
lanceolate, unequal, sometimes shortly awned. Flowering glume cori- 
aceous, lanceolate, involute, with a trifid awn; pale minute, membranous. 
Hypogynous scales entire. Stamens 3 ; filaments adnate to the stalk 
of the ovary. Ovary stipitate ; styles short ; stigmas plumose, pro- 
truded from the side of the spikelet. Grain terete, free inside the con- 
volute flower-glume. — Tufted slender grasses, with narrow leaves and 
narrow spikelets, with very prominent awns. Distrib. Cosmopolitan, 
but scarcely European. 
Spikelet ^ in. long 1. A. adscensionis. 
Spikelet •£-§ in. long 2. A. hystrix. 
1. A. adscensionis 9 Linn.; Kunth, Fnum. i. 190. Perennial, erect, 
tufted, a foot or more high, glabrous. Stems very slender. Leaves 
J-f ft. long, linear-subulate, involute. Panicle 3-1 in. long, with 
numerous distant short slender ascending branches ; pedicels very short. 
Spikelets in. long, green or bright purple. Empty glumes lanceo- 
late, acute, not awned, the inner one nearly as long as the spikelet, 
and the outer a third shorter. Awns trifid, scabrous. J-f in. long. 
A. depressa, Fetz.j Kunth , Fnum. i. 190. A. mauritiana, Kunth , Gram. 
i. 265, t. 44. A. vulgaris, Trin.j Steud. Gram. 138. A festucoides. 
Foir. 
Mauritius, Rcdriguez, and Seychelles, frequent in dry soil. Spread through 
the tropics of the Old World. 
