GRASSES AND SEDGES 35 
are medicinal ; the tubers of Cypérus esculentus, called by the French “Souchet 
comestible,” or ‘‘ Amande de terre,” are used as food in the south of Europe, 
and are employed in the preparation of orgeat ; and several species of the 
same genus are cultivated in India and China for the wholesome food afforded 
by their tubers, which are said to resemble potatoes or yams. Nor must we 
forget that to the tribe of CYPERACE&, or Sedges, belongs the Papyrus 
antiquérum, which furnished the simplest and earliest of writing materials. 
In our own country one species is employed in making baskets and chair- 
bottoms ; and others are eminently useful in binding together, by their 
creeping roots, the wandering sea-sands, or strengthening the banks of rivers 
and canals against the encroaching action of the water. Owing to the 
minuteness of the parts of fructification, and the close affinity which exists 
between many of the species, they are difficult of discrimination, and require 
to be studied with patience and accuracy. It is hoped, however, that the 
following descriptions, which have been divested as much as possible of 
technical terms, will enable the reader, assisted by the plates, to determine 
the names of at least the most strongly-marked species. 
The extensive and difficult genus Carex, is divided below into several 
groups ; and the student is recommended, before he begins to compare his 
specimen with either description or figures, to satisfy himself thoroughly, as 
to which group, and to which division of a group, it should be referred ; 
otherwise he may happen ta grow bewildered and to fling down his plant in 
despair. He may also be warned against that unscientific habit of speaking 
of the Grasses and Sedges as though they were not Flowering Plants. The 
question of showiness has nothing to do with it. The point is that these 
plants equally with Wild Roses and Lilies bear stamens and pistils, and 
when the latter are fertilized by the former a true seed is developed from 
which a plant like the parent is produced directly. As we shall see, the 
process by which the ferns and their allies are propagated is entirely 
different. 
ORDERS AND GENERA OF GRASSES AND SEDGES. 
The large sub-class GnuUMACE& (Glumaceous Plants) consists of two 
orders, CYPERACE& and GRAMINE ; the former, containing the Sedges and 
their allies ; the latter, the true Grasses. They differ from ordinary flower- 
ing plants in having their stamens and pistils enclosed in husks or glumes, 
instead of calyx and corolla. Considerably over 5,000 species of this sub- 
class are known to science. 
Order C. CYPERACEZ—SEDGES AND THEIR ALLIES. 
Flowers either with stamens and pistils, or with stamens or pistils only ; 
the lower ones often neuter, that is, without either stamens or pistils; each 
flower enclosed within a single concave scale or glume ; glumes imbricated 
round a common central column, forming a spikelet or head, each glume 
occasionally enclosing a membranous investment of the stamens and ovary ; 
stamens 1 to 6, generally 3; anthers 2-celled, fixed by their base and open- 
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