84 



The Livwg Th'mgs of the Earth unit i 



to subdivide the monocots and dicots 

 into families. There are more than two 

 hundred and forty famihes in the group 

 of dicots alone and many families among 

 the monocots. Each family contains, as 

 a rule, many different kinds or species. 



Monocotvledons used as food. The 

 monocotyledons are the source of much 

 of your food. This may astonish you, for 

 many of these plants are small and un- 

 important looking. But although they 

 are relatively small they occur in great 

 numbers; they grow side by side in end- 

 less stretches of field and meadow and 

 lawn. They are food for the cattle, sheep, 

 hogs, goats, and other grazing animals 

 which are raised for their meat or milk. 



We use grasses of various kinds as 

 food plants for ourselves, too. The "ce- 

 reals" or grains su ch as w^hea t^^mts, 

 barley, riceTanid^corn are close_relatiyes 

 o^rhe'small wild grasses oToiir meadows 

 and lawns. All of them are monocoty- 

 ledons as you can see if you examine the 

 leaves. These cereal plants have been 

 cultivated for many thousands of years. 

 The cultivation of these plants has gone 

 on so successfully that over five billion 

 bushels of \vheat alone are now produced 

 in the world each year. When you real- 

 i/,c that it is only the small kernels or 

 seeds of the plant that are gathered to 

 h'll the bushel baskets you can appreciate 



I'll;. 112 (top) Tmiothy, a grass plant. Each 

 spike is a mass of tiny flowers, (blakiston) 



Vhi. 1 1\ (bottom) Sugar cane, like timothy, is a 

 inoiiocot. How tall does it grow? (u. s. bureau 



OF PLANT industry) 



