MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 23. 
4. GRAMINEZ. Grass FAMILy. 
Mostly herbs, with usually hollow stems, closed and en- 
larged at the nodes. Leaves alternate, in two ranks, with 
sheathing bases, which are split open on the side opposite the 
blade. Flowers nearly or quite destitute of floral envelopes, 
solitary, and borne in the axils of scaly bracts called glumes, 
which are arranged in two ranks overlapping each other on 
1—many-flowered spikelets; these are variously grouped in 
spikes, panicles, and so on. Fruit a grain. (The family is 
too difficult for the beginner, but the structure and group- 
ing of the flowers may be gathered from a careful study of 
Figs. 2, 3.) 
5. CYPERACEZ. SrepGrE FaAmIty. 
Grass-like or rush-like herbs, with solid, usually triangular, 
stems, growing in tufts. The sheathing base of the generally 
3-ranked leaves, when present, is not slit as in grasses. The 
flowers are usually somewhat less enclosed by bracts than 
those of grasses; the perianth is absent or rudimentary; 
stamens generally 3; style 2-cleft or 3-cleft. 
The general appearance of a common sedge may be learned 
from Part I, Ch. V, and the flower-cluster and the flower 
understood from an inspection of Fig. 4. 
The species are even more difficult to determine than those 
of grasses. 
6. ARACEZ. Arum FaAmMILy. 
Perennial herbs, with pungent or acrid juice, leaves often 
netted-veined, small flowers (perfect or imperfect) clustered 
along a peculiar fleshy spike called a spadiz, and frequently 
more or less covered by a large, hood-like bract called a 
spathe. Perianth, when present, of 4—6 Paes often want- 
ing. Fruit usually a berry. 
