128 PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



have three stamens, some bamboos have six, while some grasses have 

 two and even one stamen. The pollen grains are smooth and wind dis- 

 tributed (anemophily). The grass ovary is superior one-celled, one- 

 ovuled and bears terminally two feathery styles, stigmatic along their 

 whole hairy surface (Figs. 51 and 52). Maize has only one hairy style, 

 but the presence of two vascular bundles suggests that it has arisen by 

 the fusion of two elongated styles. Rice has occasionally three styles. 



The fruit of grasses is one-seeded, dry and indehiscent, and hence, 

 belongs to the class of achenial fruits. It is known as a caryopsis, 

 or grain fruit. In this type of fruit the ovary wall (pericarp) is closely 

 united to the seed coat, whereas in barley and oats the chaff firmly sur- 

 rounds the ovary wall. The embryo is usually in touch with the seed 

 coats on one side of the kernel and the reserve food, as starchy endo- 

 sperm fills up the remainder of the space (Fig. 53). Sometimes, as in 

 maize, there is in addition a horny endosperm which imparts hardness to 

 the grain. 



ECONOMIC USES OP GRASSES 



The forage grasses, those used as food for cattle, are of the most im- 

 portance from an economic standpoint. "All flesh is grass" is as true 

 today, as it was in bible times. They may be divided into three groups 

 to be considered in detail in the next chapter, viz., the pasture grasses, 

 the hay grasses and the fodder grasses. The cereals are those grasses 

 which are grown for their grain. The most important are the common 

 head wheat (Triticum acstivum), the durum wheat (Trilicum durum), 

 the oats (Avena sativa), the barley (Hordeum vulgare), the rye (Seeale 

 cereale), maize (Zea mays), the sorghums (Andropogon halepensis) , which 

 includes sorgo, kaffir, milo, broom corn, shallu, kowliang, dura, rice 

 (Oryza sativa), wild rice (Zizania aquatica, Z. palustris) and millet 

 (Panicum miliaceum). 



The sugar-producing grasses are the sugar cane (Saccharum officinal urn) , 

 maize (Zea mays) and Chinese sugar-millet (Sorghum saccharatum) . The 

 medicinal grasses include couch grass (Agropyronrepens), the dried rhizome 

 of which is collected in the spring, and a fluid extract made from it used 

 as a domestic remedy in fever, jaundice, gout, etc. Its sole employment 

 to-day is as a gentle, soothing diuretic in acute inflammations of the 

 urinary passages. Other grasses have somewhat similar diuretic properties. 

 The edible grasses are mainly represented by the species of bamboo in 



