222 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



Culm The stem or straw of a grass ; when the stem creeps upon or under the ground it 

 is called a rhizoma. 



Decumbent Leaning on the ground at the lower part but rising at the top. 

 Digitate Branching finger-like from a common center, as the spikes of Crab-grass (Pan- 

 icum sanguinale). 



Dioecious The two sexes separated and growing on different plants, as in Buffalo-grass 

 (Buchloe dactyloides). 



Entire Without notches on the margin. 



Exserted Protruded beyond the flower, as the stamens of grasses usually are when in 

 bloom. 



Fertile Producing fruit. 



fibrous Composed of thread-like fibers, as the roots of most grasses. 

 floret A little flower ; a pair of palets with the inclosed stamens and pistil. There may 

 be many of these in a spikelet. 



Glabrous Smooth ; destitute of hairs or roughness. 



Glumes The outer or lower pair of bracts or scales in a spikelet, and inclosing one or 

 more, sometimes many, flowers or florets. 

 Hirsute Rough-haired, bearded. 

 Indigenous Growing naturally in a country. 

 Internode The space between the nodes or joints. 



Keel A sharp ridge along the middle of a glume or palet resembling the keel of a boat. 

 Lamina or Blade The extended part of a leaf, generally open and fiat, but sometimes 

 rolled inward longitudinally, when it is said to be involute. 



Ligule A small leaf -like appendage, usually thin and semi-transparent (membranaceous), 

 found at the lower part of the leaf or at the top of the sheath. It is said to be entire when 

 there are no divisions in its outline; bifid, when it is divided at the apex into two parts ; lacer 

 ated, when it is cut or divided on the margin ; truncated, when the upper part terminates 

 abruptly in a transverse line, as if cut off. 



Membranaceous Thin and translucent, like a membrane. 

 Nerves Rib-like elevations on the leaves, glumes, and palets. 

 Neutral Flower One having neither stamens nor pistil. 

 Nodes Knots in the culm where the leaves are given off. 

 Oblong Longer than wide, with the sides nearly parallel. 

 Obtuse Blunt-pointed. 



Ovary The portion of a flower containing the ovules or seeds. 

 Palet or Palea The inner scales or bracts inclosing the stamens and pistil. 

 Panicle The flowering part of the stem or culm of grasses, usually composed of a num 

 ber of series or whorls of branches or rays, which are again divided into secondary branches. 

 These may be short and close to the stem, or they may be long and spreading. 

 Perennial Living for more than two years ; indefinitely. 



Pistil The central organ of a fertile flower, usually consisting of an ovary, style, and 

 stigma. 



Pollen The fertilizing powder contained in the anthers. 

 Pubescent Covered with soft hairs. 



Rachis The name given to that kind of flowering branch where the flowers are arranged 

 closely together on its sides without stalks or pedicils, as in Paspalum, and in the ultimate 

 branches of the panicle. 



Radical leaves Those growing from the root. 



Spikdet The ultimate divisions of the panicles or flower-heads ; they may be one-flow 

 ered, that is, a pair of glumes enveloping a single flower of a pair of palets (or sometimes one 



