THE VEGETATIVE ORGANS OF SOME PERENNIAL 

 GRASSES- 

 FLORENCE WILLEY. 



INDEX 



Page 



Introduction 341 



Method of Procedure 342 



Definition of Terms in This Discussion 343 



Rliizomes 344 



Roots 344 



Culm 344 



Leaves 345 



Description of Vegetative Organs of Perennial Grasses ...346 



Frequently occasions arise when it is expedient to identify 

 grasses from other than their flower or fruit characterizations. 

 There have been many botanical descriptions of grasses written, 

 but these have been for the most part descriptive, or of hay crops, 

 or briefly given as from the standpoint of distribution. John 

 Percival, in his text book on "Agricultural Botany '^^ gives brief 

 attention to the sheath, ligaile and rhizome. 



Many grasses change in appearance from the spring to au- 

 tumn form, others are never allowed to blossom. M 'Alpine; 

 ' ' Grasses, ' '- gives a method whereby the grasses may be identified 

 by leaf characteristics. Work by Hackel, "The True Grasses;"^ 

 BeaJ, "Grasses of North America"'*; L. H. Pammel, Carlton R. 

 Ball, and F. Lamson-Scribner, "Grasses of Iowa"°; in general 

 give the keys based on botanical descriptive characters, other 

 than the vegetative organs, together with their habitat and 

 economic value. 



Hitchcock has taken up the morpholog^^' of the vegetative organs 

 of some of the grasses in his "Text Book of Grasses"*'. Hitch- 

 cock and Chase have included descriptio'ns of vegetative or- 

 gans in their work on the species of Panicum, in "Contribu- 

 tions from the United States National Herbarium"'^. Refer- 

 ence is made tO' the rhizomes and morphology by Pammel, Weems, 



'Percival, John, Agricultural Botany. 



"M'Alpine. A. N., Grasses. 



^Hackel, Eduard, The True Grasses. 

 *Beal, W. J., Grasses of North Ajnerica, I. 



=Pannimel, L. H., Ball, Carlton R., Lamson-Scribner, F., Grasses of Iowa, 

 Part II. Iowa Geological Sur\'ey, 1903. 



« Hitchcock, A. S., A Text Book of Grasses, f. 95-111. 



'Hitchcock, A. S., and Chase, Agnes, The North American Species of 

 Panicum: Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, Vol. 15. 



