4SS CYPERACE^E. [Carrx. 



. ft. Rootstock creeping and tufted. Stem 2-5 ft., 3-quetrous, scabrid. 

 Leaves flat, § in. broad and upwards, sheath-edges filamentous. Bract 

 broad, overtopping the stem. Sjrikelets very large ; male 3-6, crowded, 

 1J-2 in. diam., dark brown, acute, sometimes fern, at the base, macro of 

 anthers longer than in C. paludo'sa ; female 4-6, 2-3 in., pedicelled, inclined, 

 sometimes compound at the base or male at the top. Glumes narrow, 

 margins brown, midrib green, tip scabrid ; of male slender, acute. Peri- 

 gynia \ in., erecto-patent, dull green, narrowed into the beak; ribs many, 

 close. Fruit elliptic, 3-quetrous, yellow. — Distrib. Europe, N. Africa, 

 Siberia, N. and S. America. — This and the preceding are allied to 

 C. aquatfilis. 



Order LXXXIX. GRAMIN'EA, 



Herbs, usually tufted and slender. Stem cylindric or compressed, 

 jointed, internod.es usually hollow. Leaves alternate, narrow ; sheath 

 split to the base, with often a transverse membrane (ligule) or ring of 

 hairs at its mouth. Spikdets in terminal spikes, racemes, or panicles, 

 usually composed of one pair of flowerless (empty) glumes enclosing or 

 subtending one or more sessile or stalked normally flower-bearing (but 

 sometimes also empty) glumes, which are distichously arranged on a slender 

 rachis (rachilla). Flowering glumes boat-shaped, enclosing a 1-2-sexual 

 flower, and a flat often 2-nerved scale (palca) with inflexed edges. 

 Perianth of 2 (rarely or 3 or more) minute scales, placed opposite the 

 palea. Stamens 3 (rarely 1, 2, 6, or more), filaments capillary ; anthers 

 2-celled, versatile, pendulous. Ovary 1 -celled, style long short or 0, 

 stigmas usually 2 long or short feathery ; ovule 1, basal, erect, anatropous. 

 Fruit a membranous utricle, often adherent to the palea, and sometimes 

 to the flowering glume. Seed usually adnate to the pericarp, testa mem- 

 branous, albumen hard floury ; embryo small, outside the base of the 

 albumen, cotyledon reduced to a sheath enclosing the plumule, radicle 

 conical below, obliquely dilated above into a broad scutellum which 

 extends upwards and backwards beyond the cotyledon with its back 

 against the albumen. — Distrib. All climates ; genera 300 ; species about 

 3,200. — Affinities obscure. — Properties. Nutritious herbage, and 

 farinaceous seeds ; stem and leaves used for textile and other purposes. 



The tribes and genera of Grasses are most difficult of classification and 

 definition. Many systems have been proposed. The primary divisions of 

 Fries, adopted in earlier editions of this work, namely Clisanthea 1 (styles 

 long, stigmas slender with simple hairs protruded at the tnp of the glume) 

 and Eun/antkea (style short, stigmas feathery protruded from the sides of 

 the glume), has broken down under Bentham's searching revision of the 

 Order (see Journ. Linn. Soc. xix. 14, and Gen. Plant, in. 1074). I have 

 followed Bentham's classification. 



