56 CLASS TRIANDRIA CONTINUED. 



thin like that of the oat, includes a flower which, at a 

 late period, assumes a brownish tinge, and falls out in- 

 closing the seed, each of its valves produces an awn, 

 one of them nearly from the base, the other from near 

 the tip of the valve ; there are also two minute abor- 

 tive rudiments of flowers, near the base of the true 

 flower glume. This grass is likewise remarkable for 

 producing only two, in place of three stamens. 



Nearly allied to the Grasses are the Carices, or 

 Sedges, but they belong to the class and order Mon<e- 

 cia Triandria, bearing always two kinds of flowers, 

 and those in their structure, as well as that of the seed, 

 entirely different from the true Grasses. 



Without possessing any thing specious in their flow- 

 ers, no class of plants add so much to the beauty of 

 the landscape as the grasses ; their presence marks 

 the distinction between desolate sterility, and verdant 

 plenty ; a very important part of the food of man, and 

 the whole of that of his principal domestic animals de- 

 pend upon this important tribe of plants. The indus- 

 try of man is requisite to the very existence of the 

 grain he employs for food, while that part of this family 

 necessary for the food of animals is every where spon- 

 taneous, and perennial, and scarcely denied to any 

 climate in the world. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE CLASS TRIANDRIA CONTINUED. 



In the artificial classes of Linnaeus, you are not to 

 expect much attention to the natural relations which 

 plants bear to each other, and that consequently, the 

 mere number and disposition of the stamens, however 





