LESSONS IN BOTANY. 221 



plants. The most important of these is the order graminse, or 

 grass family. The members of this family are herbaceous, rarely 

 woody plants, with round stems, mostly jointed and hollow, 

 bearing alternate two-ranked leaves, each of which has a split 

 sheath or stalk. The flowers are arranged in spikelets, which 

 form a more or less compact cluster, which may be a spike or 

 panicle. The calyx consists of leaves called glumes, and the 

 parts of the corolla are called palets, which often bear bristles 

 called a-wns. There are rarely more than three stamens, and the 

 anthers are versatile. The ovary contains one ovule, which at 

 maturity forms a caryopsis, or grain. This is a large and widely 

 distributed group of plants, including the cultivated grains and 

 grasses, which furnish the major supply of food for man and 

 domestic animals. 



The more important members of this order are wheat, rye, 

 barley, the oat, rice, Indian corn, and the grasses, timothy, red- 

 top, blue-grass, orchard grass, etc.; also the sugar cane, and 

 many others. We may gain some idea of the characteristics of 

 this interesting family by studying the cultivated grass known 

 as the oat. Specimens should be collected when some of the 

 flowers are expanded and others yet in the bud. They should not 

 be pulled up, but dug up with care and the dirt shaken gently 

 from the roots, which may be cleaned by washing. If possible 

 secure specimens with the empty grain from which the plant grew 

 still attached. 



Notice first the parts of the plant, the roots, the stem with its nu- 

 merous branches to ward the top; the leaves, and possibly root hairs 

 may be seen as well as outgrowths from the stem and some parts 

 of the flower. Study carefully the different groups of roots, the 

 points from which they arise, their arrangement, relative size, etc. 

 The strongest root, from t he grain, is called the primary; those 

 from the nodes on the stem are secondary roots. Make a cross sec- 

 tion of a primary root and of a secondary root and notice the 

 parts shown and compare them. Strip off the bark from a root 

 and note its character, and that of the fibrous tissue which re- 

 mainsnote the position of the root hairs. 



