A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

74
A FLORA OF MANILA
4. Spikelets on the spike-like branches of a simple panicle. (Tribe
Festuceae.)
5. Flowering glumes 1- to 3-nerved 34. Diplachne
5. Flowering glumes several-nerved 35. Centotheca
4. Spikelets in open compound panicles, the branches usually not
spike-like.
5. A very coarse grass ; rachilla clothed with long white hairs.
36. Phrag mites
5. Slender grasses; rachilla glabrous or merely pubescent; glumes
3-nerved 37. Eragrostis
4. Spikelets in 2 rows on one side of the digitately or racemosely
arranged spikes. (Tribe Chlorideae.)
5. Spikes digitate or approximate.
6. Spikelets 1-flowered 38. Cynodon
6. Spikelets 2- or more flowered, the upper flowers imperfect,
the flowering glume awned 39. Chloris
6. Spikelets with from 3 to 6 perfect flowers.
7. Spike with terminal spikelets 40. Eleusine
7. Spikes with the rachis extended beyond the upper spikelets
in a manifest point 41. Dactyloctenium
5. Spikes raceniosely arranged along the elongated rachis, filiform
spikelets very small, alternate, several-flowered.
42. Leptochloa
2. Stems woody, plants usually tree-like; leaf-blade with a petiole-like
base which is jointed with the sheath. (Tribe Bambuseae.)
3. Spikelets scattered along the branches, usually more than 1-flowered.
43. Bambusa
3. Spikelets in dense globose or cylindric clusters along the branches,
1-, rarely 2-flowered 44. Schizostachyum
1. ZEA Linnaeus
A tall, stout, unbranched, monoecious grass, the stems solid. Leaves
large, broad, flat. Male inflorescence of terminal, racemosely arranged
spikes, the spikelets in pairs, one sessile, one pedicellate at each of the
alternating teeth of the unjointed rachis, the glumes 4, first and second
empty, enclosing the very thin third and fourth ones. Female inflorescence
a solitary, axillary, stout, sheathed spike, the rachis thick, spongy, the
spikelets -l-flowered, sessile, densely crowded in many vertical series on the
thick, cylindric rachis. (A Greek name for some undetermined grain.)
A genus of one or two exceedingly variable species, natives of tropical
America, represented here by the following introduced and extensively
cultivated species.
*1. Z. MAYS L. Mais (Sp.) ; Corn, Indian Corn, Maize.
A very coarse, erect, grass, usually about 2 m high, the leaves very laz-ge,
often 10 cm wide and up to 1 m in length. (Fl. Filip. pi. 279.)
Commonly cultivated in and about Manila, and throughout the Philip-
pines; introduced by the Spaniards at an early date, originating in tropical
America. Cultivated in all temperate and tropical countries.
A closely allied genus and species, Euchlaena luxurians Schrad., generally
known as "teosinte," has been cultivated in Singalon, but seems no longer
to be grown here. It is a native of Mexico and is very similar to Zea mays
in habit and appearance, differing chiefly in its smaller female inflores-
cence, the spikelets and grains arranged in a single row.
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