114 A TEXT-BOOK OF GRASSES 
the other pediccled. The inflorescence is therefore generally re- 
ferred to as a raceme or as composed of racemes (Fig. 16). 
Simple racemes with elongated pedicels are not common. 
- Simple panicles in which the spikelets are racemosely arranged 
above and more or less paniculate below are frequent. The meadow 
fescue and other fescue grasses usually bear this kind of an inflor- 
escence. 
Compound inflorescence—This term has received no 
very precise application. It is usually applied to a large 
inflorescence made up of numerous smaller inflorescences, 
especially if the latter have their distinctness emphasized 
by sheathing bracts as in Cymbopogon Nardus and many 
other Andropogonez. 
144. Unisexual inflorescences.—The spikelets that 
make up an inflorescence are usually alike, and consist 
of perfect flowers. But sometimes the spikelets are uni- 
sexual, the male and female spikelets being in distinct 
and usually dissimilar inflorescences. There are a few 
dicecious genera such as Spinifex, Bulbilis, Scleropogon, 
Gynerium and Jouvea. In these the inflorescence of the 
staminate plants is very different in appearance from that 
of the pistillate plants. Sometimes the difference is so 
great that the different forms might easily be considered 
by the casual observer to belong to distinct species or 
even to distinct genera. There are cases where the two 
forms have been described by botanists as belonging to 
distinct genera. In the common buffalo-grass of the 
plains the staminate inflorescence consists of 1 to 3 one- 
sided spikes raised on a peduncle a few inches long (Fig. 
48), while the pistillate inflorescence is hidden among the 
foliage close to the surface of the ground (Fig. 49). Some- 
times (e.g. Distichlis) the staminate and pistillate inflores- 
cences are similar though not alike (Fig. 52). 
