CHAPTER VI. 



GKASSES IN FLOWER. 



When the flowering shoot of a grass pushes up into 

 the light and air from the enveloping leaves, it forms a 

 more or less branched collection of flowers known as the 

 Inflorescence, and in all our grasses this inflorescence 

 consists of a principal stalk, haulm or culm, on which 

 shorter stalks — branched or not — are arranged. The 

 mode of branching is usually such that the youngest 

 branches are nearest the top, and the oldest nearest the 

 bottom. It is evident at once, on comparing the Moor 

 Mat-grass {Nardus), Vernal-grass (Anthoxanthum), Cock's- 

 foot (Dactylis), Meadow-grass (Poa) that considerable 

 differences exist as to the extent of this primary 

 branching of the inflorescence. 



In Nardus (Fig. 2) we find a number of long cylin- 

 drical-tapering bud-like structures each seated on one 

 side of the principal stem, and one over the other : in the 

 Vernal-grass and Cock's-foot we find tufts of such bud-like 

 structures closely crowded round the upper end of the 



6—2 



