SECRETARY'S REPORT. 77 



gitudinal lines or ribs ; it may be large enough to include or conceal 

 tbe glmnel, or it may be considerably smaller than the latter. 



The glumel or palea is often found to be armed by a projecting 

 spine or beard; this is of greater or less length, and is termed the 

 mvn, and may be well observed in bearded wheat and in wild and 

 cultivated barleys. This organ when long and stiff, and armed as 

 it is sometimes with projecting spic?da, renders grasses wherever 

 they occur, exceedingly objectionable, especially for hay, though 

 the grass may be good if kept from flowering by constant depastur- 

 ing; such are the species o\^ Hordcum, (wild barley.) 



The fertilizing organs consist of the stamens, which possess the 

 following parts : 



The filament or thread which supports 



The anther or case in which is secreted 



The pollen or fecundating dust. 



The fihiment, by reason of its length, may cause the anther to be 

 exserttd or standing out from the flower, or from shortness to be 

 inserted or included in its valves. 



The anther may be varied in its color as follows : 



Colorless, as in Poa a7^«^^a— Annual Meadow Grass; 



Flesh color, in Phleum inatense — Timothy Grass ; 



Rose, in Alopecurus pratcnsis — Meadow Foxtail ; 



Purple, in Aira cosspilosa — Hassock Grass ; 



Yellow, in Bromiis mollis — Soft Brome ; 



Orange, in Bromus ereclns — Upright Brome. 



The pollen is usually of a light straw color. 



The Pistil consists of a style, which is in one, or as it were, split 

 into two parts, each surmounted by a stigma^ either pointed or 

 feathery : they are mostly very pale in color, but occasionally highly 

 tinted. 



The grasses with but few exceptions, belong to the Linnean order 

 Digynia, (having two stigmata.) and the L. class Triandria, 

 (having three stamens ) 



Seeds are sometimes loose in the chaff-scales, as in the wheat : in 

 others the glumel is adherent, as in barley, a circumstance which 

 may readily explain how readily wheat grain is shed when " dead 

 ripe," as the attachment of the seeds to the chaff-scales is much less 

 firm than that of the flower to the flower stalk. 



