Phalaris.} GRAMINE^J. 295 



the world where there is any phcenogamous vegetation, with fibrous 

 roots. Culms cylindrical, fistulose, articulated ; often simple 

 and herbaceous, occasionally branched, rarely frutescent. Leaves 

 alternate, from each joint, sheathing, the sheath cleft on one side, 

 flowers small, panicled or spiked. 



A highly important group, perhaps the most valuable of all 

 the Natural Orders : none renders such numerous services to 

 mankind. Bread-corn is the "staff of life." The foliage of 

 grasses is the chief food for our cattle. The Bamboo (Arundo 

 Bambos, L.), the giant of the Family, whose stems or culms 

 attain to a height of one hundred feet in the short space of a 

 few months, furnishes materials for houses and various utensils : 

 the Sugar Cane ( Saccharum officinarum) gives us sugar. 



% Flowers panicled. (Panicle often very compact, so as to 

 appear spiked.} 



f Calyx single-flowered. 



1. ALOPECURUS. Linn. Fox-tail-grass. 



Calyx 2-valved ; valves nearly equal, mostly connate at the 

 base. Corolla of one valve, with an awn rising from the 

 base. Name from aXw-n-cg, a fox, and ovpa, a tail. 



Triandria. Digynia. 



1. A. pratensis, Linn. Meadow Fox-tail- grass. Culm erect, 

 smooth ; panicle spiked, cylindrical, obtuse ; calyx-glumes lan- 

 ceolate, acute, hairy, connate at the base ; awn twice the length 

 of the corolla. Br. Fl. ed. 3. p. 33. E. Fl. v. i. p. 78. E. 

 Bot. t. 759. 



Meadows and pastures, common. FL May, June. If. One and a 

 half to two feet high ; an excellent early grass, deservedly in great re- 

 pute. Panicle of a yellowish green colour, with silvery hairs. 



2. A. geniculatus, Linn. Floating Fox-tail-grass. Culm 

 ascending, bent at the joints ; panicle spiked, cylindrical, ob- 

 tuse ; calyx-glumes united at the base, obtuse, slightly hairy 

 and fringed ; awn twice as long as the corolla. Br. Fl. ed. 3. 

 p. 33. E. Fl. v. i. p. 89. E. Bot. t. 1250. 



In pools and wet marshy places, sometimes on dry ground. Fl. 

 July, Aug. %. 



2. PHALARIS. Linn. Canary-grass. 



Calyx of two erect, carinated valves, larger than the two- 

 valved, at length, indurated corolla, which is accompanied at 

 the base by one or two valves of other imperfect florets. 



