SECT. II 



PHANEROGAMIA 



689 



to one side by tlie subtending bract the line of which continues that of 

 the stem. Only the large, lowermost bracts are sterile, the others have each 

 a naked herma})lirodite flower in their axils. Other species have the perianth 



represented by bristles. The Cotton-grass 

 [Eriopliorum angustifolium), which when 

 flowering is inconspicuous, bears at the 

 summit of its fertile shoots 3-7 long-stalked, 

 erect spikelets with numerous, imbricate 

 bracts. Around the base of each flower are 

 numerous hairs, which are concealed by the 

 projecting stamens and style. When the 

 plant is in fruit the hairs, which have become 

 about 3 cm. long, project freely from between 

 the bracts and constitute a valuable means 

 of dispersal for the fruits. The white colour 

 of the hairs makes the now pendulous spike- 

 lets of the Cotton-grass a conspicuous feature 

 of peat-moor vegetation (Fig. 745). CyiKrus 

 2)apyrus, in Egypt and Sicily. 



The genus Carex is for the most part 

 monoecious, and its flowers are naked and 

 unisexual. Male spikes simple ; in the axil 

 of each bract is a male flower formed of three 

 stamens. The female spikes bear in the axil 

 of each bract a secondary shoot ; the axis 

 of this is included in the tubular subtending bract (utriculus) together with the 

 pistil (formed of 2 or 3 carpels) which is borne in the axil 

 of the bract (Fig. 746). 



Family 2. Gramineae (^*'). — The stems of the 

 true Grasses are cylindrical, and have hollow in- 

 ternodes (exceptions Maize and sugar-cane) ; the 

 nodes are swollen ; the leaves are two-ranked 



and their sheath is usually 

 ' split and thickened at the 



node. At the junction of 

 the sheath and leaf-blade, a 

 membranous structui'e (the 

 ligule) projects (cf. Fig. 35). 

 The flowers of the Gramineae 

 are grouped in spicate, race- 

 mose, or paniculate inflores- 

 Fiorai diagram cences, which are always com- 



FiG. 746. — A, Floral diagram of a male flower 

 of Carex ; B, of a female flower with three 

 stigmas ; C, of a female flower with two 

 stigmas ; D, diagram of female flower of 

 Carex ; E, diagram of the hermaphrodite 

 spikelet of £^i/mt ; a, secondary axis; vtr, 

 utriculus or bract of the secondary axis. 

 (After EiCHLER.) 



Fig. 74V. 



T^:^::::!^::^ P-^^^of P-^^lal inflorescences, 



represented by x . 



Fig. 74S. — Diagrammatic re- 

 presentation of a Grass 

 spikelet. </, The glumes ; 

 j)i and j)o, the inferior 

 and superior palea ; e, 

 lodicules ; B, flower. The 

 axial parts are repre- 

 sented as elongated. 



flowers. 



the sjaikelets. Usually each 

 SPIKELET bears several 

 At the base of the spikelet there are usually a pair of sterile 



bracts (gluimae) ; sometimes there is only one or 3-4, glumes. Con- 

 tinuing the two-ranked arrangement of the glumes, come the fertile 

 subtending bracts (palea inferior) in the axil of each of which 



2 Y 



