402 



SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



the ancients with a kind of paper, made by cutting the pitli into laminae, 

 which were laid one upon another and pressed, thereby becoming glued 

 together by their own sap. Its stem was, and is still, used for basket- 

 making, mats, &c., like various Scirpi &c. The species of Eriophorum, 

 the Cotton-grasses of our moorlands, produce a flock of cottony hairs 

 around the fruit, sometimes used for stuffing cushions, &c. Carex arenaria 

 (fig. 25, p. 31) and C. incurva, growing on sandy sea-shores, are very effi- 

 cient in binding the shifting sand. 



GBAMINACEJE. GRASSES. 

 Coh. Glumales, Benth. et Hook. 



Diagnosis. Monocotyledons (mostly herbaceous, rarely woody 

 and arborescent), usually with hollow stems, with solid joints at 

 the nodes ; leaves alternate, distichous, with tubular sheaths slit 

 down on the side opposite the blade, and a ligule (p. 52, figs. 59, 

 60) at the base of the blade ; the fruit grooved on one side, embryo 

 outside the perisperm. 



Fig. 487. 



Fig. 486. 



Fig. 488. 



Fig. 486. SpikeletofAvena: a, a, glumes; 6, 5, flowering glumes or outer pale* of florets. 



Fig. 487. Compound spike, with spikelets, of Lolium. 



Fig. 488. Floret of Aoena: b, flowering glume ; 6*. awn; 6',palea. 



Character. 



Inflorescence spicate, the flowers arranged in spikelets or locusta, 

 which are again aggregated in spikes, racemes, or panicles ; per- 

 fect, or sometimes monoecious or polygamous. Spilcelets mostly 

 with two alternate and unequal dry scaly bracts, called glumes, 



