12'2 'i'HK NATURALIST. 



NOTES UPON PLANTS. 



By Leo H. Grindon. 



Grasses. — Young botanists are accustomed to turn from the grasses in 

 dismay, supposing them intensely difficult. At the present season, when 

 so many species of this beautiful family are in perfection, it may be well 

 to invite the student's attention to one or two of the commonest, and 

 which are at the same time very easy to understand. Take for instance, 

 the common meadow soft-grass, Holcus lanatus. While quite young, the 

 panicle is close and compact. As the flowers open, it gradually assumes 

 the form of a triangular pyramid, some plants commencing to bloom 

 at the summit, others at the base, and when fully expanded, is hung all 

 over, and most elegantly, with the little purple and pendulous anthers. 

 Except when growing in shade, which is not often, (the meadow soft-grass 

 being one especially of the open fields and even of the wayside) the hue of 

 the panicle is of a peculiar pinky-red, — a character by which the plant 

 may generally be identified at a glance. When abundantly difi'used among 

 mowing-grass, the surface of the meadow is markedly tinted by it, some- 

 what in the same way as by the sorrel, but not so agreeably, since the 

 soft-grass has little or no lustre, nor is the colour rich and glowing as in 

 the former. Another very obvious character, when the plant is taken in 

 the hand, consists in the velvety softness of every portion, and especially 

 of the leaf-sheaths. Now take an individual spikelet : at the base are the 

 two "outer" glumes, purplish, boat-shaped, hairy, semi-transparent, and 

 with a strong green rib up the middle, and another near each margin. 

 Inside these are the glumelles, which being green, are plainly distinguish- 

 able by their colour alone, as well as by their much smaller size, and are 

 visible through the glumes, which are often almost as clear as a piece of 

 glass. Interior to these again are the organs immediately concerned in 

 reproduction, and which consist of three stamens in the upper of the two 

 flowers, and of three stamens and a solitary pistil in the lower one. The 

 glumelle of the upper flower has a delicate and curving awn at the back 

 It is so short, however, as to be quite concealed by the great glume, so 

 that without dissection the flowers seem awnless. 



Other very good species for the beginner are the common ray-grass, 

 Loliu7n jierenno, and the silver oat-grass, Arrhennthermn avenaceiim. On 



