On a new Chionachne from Queensland

Years ago I intensively studied the grasses of the tribe of the Maydeae. The results of my investigations were published in an article ”A contribution to the knowledge of the Indian Maydeae“, issued in the ”Mededeelingen van ’s Rijks Herbarium“ no. 67 (1931). In this paper the grasses of this tribe from the Old World were treated and especially the various genera were characterized according to their caryopses. The curious form and the place of the hilum of the caryopsis were accepted as characters of high importance to distinguish and to establish the various genera, and it was especially the genus Polytoca, which was more sharply defined by the place of the hilum, the lower margins of the grain enclosing a cavity at the bottom of which is found the hilum. In the genus Chionachne such a cavity is not present and the hilum is found at the back of the grain. I accepted 4 species of the genus Chionachne. One of them, viz. Ch. Koenigii (SPRENGEL) THWAITES, is rather widely distributed from British India and Ceylon to Tonkin and from Celebes to Queensland. Ch. biaurita HACKEL is endemic in the Philippines and Ch. semiteres (BENTH.) HENR. was only observed in the Deccan Peninsula and Burma. The fourth species was mentioned by me from Queensland as being Chionachne Sclerachne BAILEY. The type of BAILEY was not represented in the Kew Herbarium and I saw only a fragment from a plant collected by F. v. MUELLER, which I accepted as being BAILEY’s species. DOMIN mentioned from Queensland only Polytoca cyathopoda (F. v. M.) BAILEY and not having seen DOMIN’s plant I had only to accept that the identification was correct. Recently Mr. HUBBARD from the Kew Herbarium could examine DOMIN’s plant and found that it belonged to the genus Chionachne.