422 



THE GRASS FAMILY. 



almost invariably three, sometimes six, two, or one ; the ovary is solitary, 

 with a single ovule ; the stigmas are generally two, large, and beautifully 

 feathered. The fruit resembles a little seed, as familiarly exemplified 

 in grains of wheat or barley. The inflorescence is generally either in 

 panicles or spikes. (Figs. 201, 202, 203.) In stature and ornamental 

 character they difier immensely, and the same may be said of their 

 habitats. Many grow in water, and not a few close to the sea, where 

 washed by the spray. The number of species is probably not much 

 short of four thousand, but the number of individuals immeasurably 

 greater than of any other family, in northern latitudes forming that 

 cheerful evergreen carpet which the eye and body alike repose on with 

 such content. In value the Graminacete are second only to the palm- 



Fig. 201. 

 Sweet-scented A'emal-grass. 



Fig. 202. 

 Spike. 



Fig. 203. 

 Panicle — Quaking Grass. 



trees, supplying not alone pasturage for the herbivorous animals, bread 

 in the cerealia, and sugar, but a variety of materials that can be turned 

 to useful account, and serving also various physical uses to the soil. 

 In the tropics they often attain such vast altitudes as to flaunt their 

 silken panicles above the trees that stand around them. 



Opinions are divided as to the number of grasses wild in England. 

 Authors who recognize the whole or most of the proposed species, 

 make the number about one himdrcd and twenty-five. Those who do 

 not see the asserted distinctions regard them as ninety-nine or one 

 hundred. Near Manchester we have imder the liberal view sixty, 

 under the condensed one fifty-four ; the latter is the number acknow- 



