CHAPTER 
GRASSES AND SEDGES 
Our next two chapters have to deal with the “mono- 
cotyledons,” 2.e. with plants that have one leaf developed 
in their seeds. This in itself, as I have already told you, 
is a trifling point, but with this go usually certain other 
peculiarities. In English monocotyledons no cambium 
ring is ever found thickening the stem year by year; 
in fact, the stem aboveground dies down every winter. 
One feature by which a monocotyledon can at once be 
recognised is the parallel veining of the leaves. The 
main veins run side by side-down the leaf, which is 
almost invariably quite simple in shape, and not carved 
and scalloped as are the leaves, for instance, of the Herb 
Robert, or, in another fashion, of the Dandelion. In the 
Dicotyledons the veins form a branching network over 
the whole expanse, and their example is followed by 
one eccentric member of the present family, the Herb 
Paris, which we shall meet again later. Another point 
that may reasonably make you suspect a plant of being 
a monocotyledon is the appearance of the flower. If the 
various parts that were mentioned in Chapter X. show 
a partiality for the number three; if there are three 
sepals and three petals, or, as may happen, six structures 
that might be either, it is well first to hunt amongst the 
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