492 



ENDOGENOUS OR MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



Fruit a caryopsis (607). Embryo situated on the outside of the 

 farinaceous albumen, next the hilum. Ex. Agrostis, Phleum, 

 Poa, Festuca, which are the principal meadow and pasture grasses: 

 Oryza (Rice), Zea (Maize), Milium (Millet), Avena (the Oat), 

 Triticum (Wheat), Secale (Rye), Hordeum (Barley), are the chief 

 cereal plants, cultivated for their farinaceous seeds. This univer- 

 sally diffused order, one of the largest of the vegetable kingdom, 

 is doubtless the most important ; the floury albumen of the seeds, 

 and the nutritious herbage, constituting the chief support of man 

 and the herbivorous animals. No unwholesome properties are 

 known in the family, except in the seeds of Lolium temulentum, 

 which are deleterious. The Ergot, or Spurred Rye, forms no real 

 exception to this rule, as it is caused by parasitic fungus. The 



1135 



1136 



1126 1128 1130 1132 



stems of grasses frequently contain sugar in considerable quantity ; 



FIG. 1126. One-flowered spikelet or locus' a of Alopecurus, with the glumes separated. 

 1127. Same, with the glumes removed: an awn on the back of the outer palea. 1128. One- 

 flowered spikelet of an Agrostis. 1129. Pistil of a Grass, showing the two feathery stigmas, 

 and the two hypogynous scales or squamulae (representing the perianth). 1130. Two-flowered 

 spikelet of an Avena; with the glumes spreading. 1131. One of the flowers with its palese; 

 the exterior pointed, with two bristles or cusps at the apex, and with a bent awn on the back. 

 1132. Many-flowered spikelet of Glyceria fluitans. 1133. An enlarged separate flower of the 

 same, seen from within, showing the inner palea, &c. 1134. The fruit (caryopsis) of the 

 Wheat, with an oblique section through the integuments of the embryo, which is exterior to 

 the albumen. 1135. Detached magnified embryo: a, the imperfect lower cotyledon; b, the 

 large cotyledon; c, the plumule ; d, the radicle. 1136. The caryopsis of Hordeum (Barley). 

 1137. A cross-section. 1138. A vertical section, showing the external embryo at the base. 

 1139. Magnified detached embryo, with its broad cotyledon and the plumule. 1140. More 

 magnified vertical section of the same : a, the plumule ; b, the radicle. 



