OFTHEGLCJMA. 191 



flowers, according to the genuine Linnaean idea of 

 this kind of calyx, taken from Palm-trees. In these 

 the Spadix is branched. 



5. Gluma,f. 148. Husk, the peculiar calyx of Grasses 

 and Grass-like plants, of a chaffy texture. These 

 husks are usually compressed, embracing each other 

 at the base, as in Phleum pratense, t. 1076. Some- 

 times they are depressed, flattened vertically, as in 

 Eliza, t. 540 and 1316. To the husk belongs the 

 Arista, f. 149, Beard or Awn, a bristle-shaped ap- 

 pendage, usually spiral, and possessing the property 

 of an hygrometer. This, however, is not always 

 present, even in different individuals of the same 

 species. 



" Unfortunately for the science, 

 On the awn there 's no reliance/' 



So says, or rather sings, with more truth than subli- 

 mity, the ingenious author of the Flora Londinemis', 

 fasc. 6, t. 8. 



The spiral kind of awn is most frequently attached 

 to the Corolla of grasses, which is precisely of the 

 same husky nature as their calyx, and is, by some 

 botanists, considered as such. Specimens of glumce 

 mutictf, beardless husks, are seen in Phalaris cana- 

 riensis, Engl Bot. t. 1310, and gluma aristatce, 

 awned ones, in Lagurus ovatus, 1. 1 334, and Stipa 

 pennata t t. 1356. 



