46 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



with in all the compound inflorescences of Monocoty- 

 ledons. The little bracts situated at the base of the 

 pedicels which spring from the spathes, bear the name 



of SPATHELL.E. 



Among Spathes, we distinguish by the name of 

 Glumes those which are of a more scaly and dry 

 texture ; they are peculiar to the immense family of the 

 Gramineas. In this sense, the glumes which grow at 

 the base of the locustse of grasses are analogous to 

 spathes, or involucra ; those which are found around each 

 flower, and which are called Glumell^e, are, according 

 to some, analogous to involucella or spathellae, and ac* 

 cording to others, to the true integuments of the flower. 

 The opinion of the former is founded — 1st, Upon the 

 analogy with the Cyperacese, where the scale is evidently a 

 bract ; — 2d, Upon the fact that the outer glumella is 

 always situated a little below the inner one ; whence it 

 results that these valves are not verticillate, as the true 

 floral integuments, but alternate, as the leaves of the 

 Gramineas. These reasons appear to me to be strongly 

 in favour of this opinion. 



Lestiboudois has been willing to corroborate this 

 theory by a third argument, viz. the quaternary num- 

 ber, which he admits without mentioning his reasons, 

 in the glumellae ; but it appears evident to me, with 

 Mr. Robt. Brown, that the glumes and glumellae pre- 

 sent the ternary number peculiar to Monocotyledons, 

 the outer one being a single piece, the inner one two 

 united. 



We sometimes find in the Aroideae and Palms, very 

 large spathes composed of a single sheathing leaf; an 

 organization possible in Monocotyledons, where the 

 leaves are essentially alternate, but which cannot take 

 place in the involucra of Dicotyledons, the pieces of 

 which are essentially opposite or verticillate. 



