Minnesota Plant Life. 



205 



Fig. 83. Beard-grass. After Britton and 

 Brown. 



body. There is always albumen in the seed and the embryo 



lies toward one side, nursing on the albumen by its peculiar 



sucker-shaped seed-leaf. This 



may be seen when one carefully 



removes the embryo or germ 



from a corn fruit or from a 



wheat kernel. It will then be 



noticed that the embryo has on 



one side a flattened disc which 



presses itself against the albu- 

 men, and by it the plantlet nurses 



as the seed begins to germinate. 

 There are several tribes of 



grasses recognized : the maizes, 



to w'hich Indian corn belongs ; 



the bluejoints, including also the 



sugar-cane ; the panic-grasses, 



with which the barnyard grass, 



the sand-burrs and their allies are 



grouped ; the rices, of which the Minnesota representative is the 



well-known wild rice or Indian rice; the canary-seed grasses; 



the timothies and millets, in- 

 cluding also some sand-bind- 

 ing grasses and tumbling- 

 grasses ; the oats, comprising 

 the well-known wild oats and 

 a number of kindred genera; 

 the fescue grasses, with blue- 

 grass and reed-grass as types; 

 the buffalo-grasses, and the 

 barleys with which tribe are 

 also grouped both wheat and 

 rye. Only two of the large 

 tribes of grasses are unrepre- 

 sented in Minnesota by native 

 varieties. These are the maizes 

 and the bamboos; but Indian 

 corn, one of the maizes, is so 



abundantly cultivated that it may rightfully be regarded as a 



Minnesota plant. 



Fig. 84. Barnyard gras.s. After Britton and 

 Brown. 



