532 



A TEXTBOOK OF BOTANY 



[Ch. XIII 



from wet marshes to dry plains. While mostly low grow- 

 ing, some reach to tree size, as in the Bamboo of the tropics 

 (Fig. 374). They are the most valuable of all plants to man, 

 for they include the principal fodder of his domestic animals 



and most of his own 

 important food plants, 

 — Corn (Maize), 

 Wheat, Rice, Oats, 

 Barley, Rye, Millet and 

 other grains, while 

 Sugar Cane is also a 

 grass. The Sedges 

 (Cyperacece), some 3000 

 species, are distin- 

 guished from Grasses 

 by triangular instead 

 of round stems, and by 

 more simple flowers. 

 They prefer wetter 

 places than the Grasses, 

 but include only a few 

 economic forms, of 

 which the Papyrus 

 (Fig. 375), source of the 

 paper of the ancients, 

 is perhaps best known. 



Order 4- Palmales 

 (Principes) : the 

 Palms. Some 1000 spe- 

 x h< cies including the most 

 graceful and stately of 



Fig. 375. — Papyrus antiquorum, 

 (From Bailey.) 



tropical trees. They have columnar stems crowned by great 

 fronds (Fig. 30). The rather small flowers occur in long spikes, 

 simple or branching, inclosed when young by a single huge 

 spathe. Some are pollinated by wind, and others by in- 



