GRAMINEÆ.
841
| Panicle dense, cylindrical. Outer glumes compressed, fringed on the keel. Flowering glume hyaline, with a short dorsal awn. Rhachilla not produced | 14. Alopecurus. |
| Panicle long, narrow and spike-like in the New Zealand species. Spikelets small, awnless. Flowering glume usually exceeding the outer glumes. Seed loose in the pericarp and finally expelled from it | 15. Sporobolus. |
| Spikelets panicled. Outer glumes very minute. Flowering glume awnless, acuminate, pubescent. Palea almost as long as the glume | 16. Simplicia. |
| Spikelets small, panicled. Flowering glume hyaline, much smaller than the outer glumes, awned on the back or awnless. Palea usually short, often minute or wanting. Rhachilla not produced | 17. Agrostis. |
| Spikelets small, panicled. Flowering glume hyaline, smaller than the outer glumes or almost equalling them, awned on the back. Palea more than half as long as the flowering glume. Rhachilla produced beyond the palea, silky | 18. Deyeuxia. |
| Panicle long, narrow, dense, bristly from the long awns. Flowering glume hardly shorter than the outer glumes, with a long and fine awn from the back near the tip | 19. Dichelachne. |
Tribe VI. AVENÆ.
Spikelets 2- or several-flowered, usually panicled. Flowering glumes generally shorter than the outer glumes, usually awned; awn geniculate and often twisted, rarely straight.
| * Awn of the flowering glumes dorsal, rising from below the terminal teeth of the glume, not from between them. | |
| Spikelets 2-flowered. Flowering glumes erose or 2 toothed at the tip, shortly awned | 20. Deschampsia. |
| Spikelets 2–6-flowered. Flowering glumes sharply 2-toothed at the tip; teeth sometimes almost awned; awn from the back just below the teeth | 21. Trisetum. |
| Spikelets 5–10-flowered. Flowering glumes rounded at the back; awn dorsal, straight or bent | 22. Amphibromus. |
| ** Awn of the flowering glumes rising from between the terminal lobes or teeth of the glume. | |
| Spikelets several-flowered. Flowering glumes rounded at the back, often ciliate or hairy; awn rigid, often twisted or flattened at the base | 23. Danthonia. |
Tribe VII. CHLORIDEÆ.
Spikelets 1–many-flowered, crowded in two rows on one side of a flat rhachis or spike; spikes in racemes or digitate.
| Spikes digitate or scattered at the top of the culm. Spikelets compressed, several-flowered, awnless. Outer glumes persistent; flowering glumes deciduous | 24. Eleusine. |
Tribe VIII. FESTUCEÆ.
Spikelets 2–many-flowered, usually panicled or racemed. Flowering glumes generally exceeding the outer glumes, awnless or with 1 or several straight awns, which are usually terminal, rarely dorsal. Rhachilla produced beyond the uppermost flower.
