190 CLASS MONCEC1A. 



perianth ; the pericarp (or seed) is pedicellated, 

 and surrounded with a hairy pappus at the base. 

 This plant is found in almost every climate, and in 

 nearly every quarter of the globe. 



The genus Carex, or Sedge-grass, of which there 

 are not less than 90 species in this country, and a 

 still greater number in Europe, belongs to the family 

 of the Cyperoide^:, and, as its common name im- 

 plies, is nearly related to the grasses, for which they 

 are commonly taken by ordinary observers. They 

 grow in woods and marshy meadows, are perennial, 

 often growing in tufts, have leaves like grass, but 

 keeled, or sharply angled beneath in the centre, pro- 

 duce culms (or stems) almost universally triangular, 

 and solid within. — The flowers, sometimes dioecious, 

 as well as monoecious, are disposed in dense imbri- 

 cated spikes or aments. The glume is 1 -flowered ; 

 the corolla ventricose, 1-valved, persistent, often 2- 

 toothed at the summit, and including the caryopsis 

 (or seed). The staminiferous flowers have each but 

 a single scale, or more properly bracte. 



The Mays, or Indian Corn (Zea Mays), belongs 

 to the family of the grasses, and affords a very intelli- 

 gible example of Moncecia. The flowering top or 

 panicle consists, as we all well know, of flowers which 

 never produce corn. These are merely staminiferous 

 glumes, each one including 2 flowers, which, as well 

 as their common calyx, are awnless. The fertile 

 flowers form a dense spike, inclosed in a husk or 

 complicated sheath of bractes. The glume both of 

 calyx and corolla is 2-valved and indistinct. The 

 styles, one to each grain, are filiform and very long ; 

 the whole in each ear being exserted from its sheath, 

 forms a silky tuft. 



In Tetrandria is arranged the Alder (Jlhius) of the 

 order of the Willows (Salicinte) ; its sterile flowers 



