ENDOGENOUS OR MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



491 



Carex. Sedge-Grasses. The papyrus of the Egyptians was 

 made from the stems of Cyperus Papyrus. 



1118 



926. Ord, Gramineae (the Grass Family). Stems (culms) cylindri- 

 cal, mostly hollow, and closed at the nodes. Sheaths of the leaves 

 split or open. Flowers in little spikelets, consisting of two-ranked 

 imbricated bracts ; of which the exterior are called glumes, and 

 the two that immediately inclose each flower, palece. Perianth 

 none, or in the form of very small and membranous hypogynous 

 scales, from one to three in number, distinct or united (termed 

 squamulce, squamellce, or lodicula). Stamens commonly three : 

 anthers versatile. Styles or stigmas two ; the latter feathery. 



FIG. 1118. gcirpus triqueter, with its cluster of apikelets. 1119. A separate flower, en- 

 larged, showing its rudimentary perianth of a few denticulate bristles, its three stamens, and 

 pistil with a three-cleft style : a, section of the seed, showing the minute embryo. 1120. Carex 

 Careyana, reduced in size (flowers monoecious, the two kinds in different spikes). 1121. Stem, 

 with the staminate and upper pistillate spike, of the size of nature. 1122. A scale of the stam- 

 inate spike, with the flower (consisting merely of three stamens) in its axil. 1123. Magnified 

 pistillate flower, with its scale or bract : the ovary inclosed in a kind of sac (perigynium), 

 formed by the union of two bractlets. 1124. Cross-section of the perigynium ; with the pistil, 

 p, removed. 1125. Vertical section of the achenium, showing the seed. 



