I KSENS.J GLI MALI 



Anus, r VII. GLUMA LES. — Tin: Glumal Ajxiakce. 



Diagnosis, i tent. 



The great mass of herbage known by tin- name of S 1 Grasses, 



ps a twelfth pari of the described species of flowering plants, and at least nine- 

 tenths of tlit- Dumber of individuals composing the vegetation of the world ; for it 

 chief source of that verdure which covers the earth of northern countries with a g 

 during the months of w inter. Such forms of vegetation are piw ided bj nature with true 

 Hi » r-, that ii to say, with stamens and pistils, the action of the former of which upon the 

 latter is indispensable for the creation "t a seed ; but there i- little trace of the cah \ and 

 corolla, which are commonly characteristic of the more perfect races of plants ; not that 

 Bora! envelopes are wanting, but they do not assume the whorled or ringed \ 

 the ] arts w bich form a calyx and corolla ; they merely consist oi minute gn en or 

 bracts placed one over the other, and sometimes appearing to be united by their < 

 There is also great simplicity in their pistil, but one ovule being formed in each cavity, 

 whatever number of carpels (indicated by the Btigmas) may be employed in th< 

 Btruction of it Their foliage is as simpli as it can be t" have any considerable d 

 of development^ consisting of fine thread- shaped veins running side by side froi 



end of the leaf to the other. 



It i- usual to restrict the term glumaceous to Grasses and Sedges ; but tl-' 

 no intelligible reason why die Cordleafs (Restiaceae,) Pipeworts (Eriocaulacese, 

 Bristleworts (Desvauxiaceae,) should be omitted, for they have precisely the same 

 habit and the Bame substitution of imbricated scales for calyx and corolla. It is only 

 among the Pipeworts that we have the beginning of a calyx, in the form ol a mem- 

 branous tube surrounding the ovary. They do not, however, indicate a more complex 

 condition ; rather less so indet d than in < brasses and Sedges ; for their pistils arc p< r 

 simple, while those of the latter are invariably formed by the coalition of at l< 

 carpellary leaves for each cavity of the ovary. 



Two divisions may be formed among the orders, viz.: — 



1. Ovule erect or ascending; pistil compound. — Qraminaceee and C 



2. Ovules pendulous : pistil simpl 



The first set touch Palms, the latter Rushes ; the whole, in consequ their 



spiked-inflorescence, scaly floral envelopes, and great tendency to a separation 

 3j pass naturally into Bulrush worts (Typliac 



Natural < »m>. its of G 

 asc* tiding ; . naked 



Ovar. 1- ' . '-' listi* i (or united) ovule\ . 



Grj ■ 



Ovar. \-ctllx/, with 2i •) united 



■. embryo batai J ' 



Ovar. si verai (t l 



dvlousj glumes only; 1. 1-2 ; < 



-. \-'2-'A-'-,U,il, with '2 nr ,\ . I 





i/u, .- st. - :'<; untfi. 1- ■ bryottrm 

 Ovar. 2-3-a !/,J, with 1 1 

 bra/nous i-lobed cup within the glumes . • I 



Iryo terminal 



