122 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
grip the stem with the edges of the leaf folding over one 
another, and the leaf can therefore be unfolded and 
removed from the stem without damage. Amongst the 
sedges, on the other hand, the lower edges of the leaf 
are soldered into a tube, and, of course, if the leaf be 
pulled away, the tube is torn. 
The flowers are borne in spikes, or ears, and appear in 
very varying numbers, from hundreds down to as few as 
twenty, and are all marked by strong family resemblance, 
distinguished easily enough from other groups by the 
entire absence of either calyx or corolla. (In the grass 
group I here include the sedges, the reeds, and the true 
bulrush. This is not the reed-mace or poker,* but the 
tall plant with a feathery fan of flowers, which grows so 
plentifully around all the Broads, and along many of the 
rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk.) We can at once separate 
the true rushes (the Juncacew) from the grasses by 
examining their clusters of flowers with that low-power 
magnifying-glass, which you should always carry with 
you when out botanising. In the rushes we find that the 
flowers have got a definite whorl of floral leaves around 
the stamens and pistil, although they are small and 
coloured a quiet brownish-green. 
In monocotyledons especially there is often no clear 
line between the calyx and corolla, and when there is 
only one ring present people may and do differ whether 
the calyx has disappeared, or the corolla has disappeared, 
or whether they have simply fused into one indeterminate 
ring, Well, as I said, the grass flower is recognisable at 
once, for the perianth is generally entirely absent. Some- 
times we find two small scales lying close by the stamens 
* In which the perianth, or envelope formed by calyx and corolla 
combined, is represented by scales, 
