505 



in miniature. The calyx contains one, two, or more, flo- 

 rets, which are constructed in the same manner, of two 

 leafy husks, called by Linnaeus petals, to distinguish them 

 from the former. Within the petals the receptacle bears 

 two very minute, roundish, pellucid, extremely tender, 

 withering scales, often invisible without a magnifier, which 

 Micheli termed petals, Linnaeus nectaries. Stamens ge- 

 nerally three, in a few one, two, or six with capillary fila- 

 ments, and oblong incumbent anthers, whose lobes become 

 separated at each end. Micheli erroneously imagined 

 those which have six stamens, to bear, as it were, doubled 

 flowers. The germen is superior, with two styles, some- 

 times raised on a common stalk or elongated base, and 

 they are usually reflexed to each side, being either longi- 

 tudinally hairy, or tufted at the summit only. Seed 

 universally solitary, without a capsule, Lygeum only 

 having a nut, of two cells, which is very singular. A few 

 have a simple style, as Zea, Nardus, and Lygeum. The 

 seed is occasionally coated by the petals, which closely en- 

 fold it, and are almost united with it, — witness Hordeum 

 and Avena ;" (to which examples indicated by Linnaeus 

 we may add Briza). ''Many grasses are furnished with 

 an awn, arista, mostly rough, like a prominent bristle, 

 inserted into the back of the outermost petal, either at the 

 bottom, middle, summit, or a little below the latter. This 

 appendage is either straight, or furnished with a joint, 

 and twisted backward, or simply recurved ; in some it is 

 woolly : in several it is accompanied by hairs at the base 

 of the corolla. The use of these parts is to attach the ripe 

 seeds to the coats of animals, that they may be the more 

 dispersed." 



" Although grasses are destitute of spines properly so 

 called, a few have their leaves longitudinally involute, in 

 such a manner that their rigid permanent points have all 

 the properties of thorns, as in Spinifex, and some Festucce. 

 Their foliation is, for the most part, involute, but in some 

 instances, as Dactylis ghrnerata, it is folded. This cha- 



