CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



BUTOMACEjE. A small order of aquatic plants, 

 having very cellular leaves, furnished with parallel 

 veins, and handsome umbellate flowers of a purple 

 or yellow colour. Calyx, three-sepaled, usually 

 herbaceous ; corolla, three-petaled and coloured ; 

 stamens, definite or indefinite ; ovaries, superior, 

 three, six, or more, either distinct or united ; 

 follicles, many-seeded ; seeds, minute, attached to 

 the whole inner surface of the fruit. 



The genera are Butomus, Limnocharis, and 

 Hydrochleis, which abound respectively in the 

 marshes of Europe, South America, and the East 

 Indies. B. umbella- 

 tus, the flowering rush, 

 an enneandrous plant, 

 is found in ditches 

 and by river-sides in 

 some parts of Britain, 

 growing from two to 

 three feet high, with 

 sword-shaped leaves, 

 and umbels of rose or 

 purplish white flowers. 

 Limnocharis Plumieri, 

 a native of Brazil, has 

 yellow flowers, and the 

 apex of each leaf is fur- 

 Flowering Rush, nished with a curious 

 pore, apparently for the 



discharge of the superabundant moisture which 

 constantly distils from the plant 



The order is said to possess acrid and bitter 

 properties ; and most of the species yield a milky 

 juice. 



GLUMIFERvE. 



The plants in the section Glumiferse of the 

 Monocotyledons are destitute of a regular calyx 

 and corolla, having instead 

 green or brown scales to 

 cover the stamens and 

 pistil. The glume or chaff 

 of the oat (see fig.) is a 

 familiar example of this 

 kind of envelope. The 

 Sedges (CYPERACE^E) and 

 the Grasses (GRAMINE^E) 

 are the only orders ranking 

 under this sub-class. We can merely glance at 

 the latter noticing a few of the genera which lie 

 within the inspection of every one. 



GRAMINE.*. One of the most important and 

 valuable, as it is x one of the most extensive, of 

 the natural orders. It comprehends 4000 known 

 species, including the common grasses of our 

 pastures, the cereals wheat, barley, rye, oats, and 

 maize ; the sugar-cane, rice, &c. Their roots are 

 fibrous or bulbous ; their culms or stems cylindrical 

 and hollow, except at the joints, where they become 

 solid, the whole culm generally covered with a sili- 

 cious coating ; leaves alternate, and though sheath- 

 ing the stem, not united round it ; flowers in spike- 

 lets, and arranged in a spiked, racemed, or panicled 

 manner. The characters of the fructification are 

 flowers, either solitary or arranged in spikes, 

 usually hermaphrodite, sometimes monoecious or 

 polygamous, consisting of imbricated bracts, of 

 which the most exterior are called glumes, the 

 inferior immediately inclosing the stamens, pales, 

 and the innermost at the base of the ovarium, 

 scales : glumes, usually two, alternate, sometimes 

 no 



Sugar-cane. 



single, often unequal; palece, two, alternate, the 

 lower or exterior simple, the upper or interior 

 supposed to be composed of two united by their 

 contiguous margins, and usually with two keels ; 

 scales, two or three, sometimes wanting ; stamens, 

 hypogynous ; anthers, versatile ; pericarp, usually 

 undistinguishable from the seed, membranous ; 

 albumen, farinaceous. 



The Grasses are scattered all over the globe, 

 and are the most directly useful of all vegetation 

 both to man and to the lower animals. The 

 following well-known plants may be taken as illus- 

 trative of the order : Triticum -vulgare, common 

 wheat, which, accord- 

 ing to the experiments 

 of Fabre, appears to 

 have originated from 

 a small weedy grass 

 (AZgilops ovatd), not 

 uncommon on the 

 shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. Hordeum dis- 

 tichum, common two- 

 rowed barley ; Secale 

 cereale, rye ; Avena, 

 sativa, common oat ; 

 Zea mays, maize or 

 Indian corn ; Sac- 

 charunt officinarum, 

 the sugar-cane ; Oryza 

 sativa, rice ; Bambusa 

 arundinacea, the bam- 

 boo ; Phleumpratense, 

 cat's-tail or Timothy 

 grass ; Anthoxanthum odoratum, sweet-scented 

 vernal grass ; Dactylis glomerata, cock's-foot 

 grass ; D. ccespitosa, the tussac-grass ; Andropogon 

 Schcenanthus, the lemon-grass ; Gynerium argen- 

 teum, the Pampas-grass ; Phalaris canariensis, 

 the canary-seed ; Sorgham species, the guinea- 

 corn ; Festuca pratensis, meadow-fescue ; Lolium 

 perenne, rye-grass ; Briza media, quaking-grass ; 

 Alopecurus pratensis, meadow fox-tail grass ; and 

 Holcus lanatus, woolly soft grass. The cereal 

 grains are plants of very ancient cultivation, and 

 not being now found in a wild state, the origin of 

 some of them is doubtful. Though allied in many 

 respects to the Sedges, the Grasses are readily 

 distinguished by their round hollow-jointed stems, 

 and leaves that sheathe, but do not completely 

 surround, the stem like a tube. The Grasses 

 have a thin silicious coating on their stems, which 

 seems intended to furnish them with greater 

 strength and durability than could have been pro- 

 cured by simple ligneous fibre. 



ACROGENOUS OR ACOTYLEDONOUS 

 (FLOWERLESS) PLANTS. 



This class of vegetation is readily distinguished 

 by none of its members bearing proper flowers 

 hence the terms Cryptogamia and Floiverless. 

 The higher forms exhibit a peculiar kind of tissue, 

 called scalariform vessels, as well as spiral vessels ; 

 but the lower forms consist of cellular tissue only. 

 They exhibit very different degrees of organisa- 

 tion the highest (ferns) having both stems and 

 leaves (fronds}, and the lowest consisting of simple- 

 jointed threads, or even mere individual cells. 

 Between these two extremes there are various 



