340 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Flowering glumes with the backs turned to the rachis 



1 10. Ldliwni 



Flowering glumes with their sides turned to the rachis 



11. Agropyron 



Spikelets 2-6 at each joint of the rachis 12. Hordeum 



Rachis not channeled.. ..9. Bromus 



Fig. 138. Spikelets of tall-meadow-catgrass (Arrhenatherum elatius). 1 & 2. Sta- 

 mens. 3. The lower flower with protruding styles; upper flower with protruding stamens. 

 The lower scales are called sterile glumes. Each flower consists of a palet and flowering 

 glume, stamens and pistil. 



1. Zea. Mays. L,. 



Spikelets unisexual, monoecious; the staminate 2-flowered, in pairs, one 

 sessile, the other pedicellate, arranged in terminal branches of a terminal pan- 

 icle; the pistillate 1-flowered, sessile crowded in several rows, along the much 

 thickened continuous axis arising from the lower leaf-axil and closely en- 

 veloped by numerous large foliaceous bracts; glumes 4, awnless; those of the 

 staminate spikelet acute; those of the pistillate very broad and obtuse or 

 emarginate ; grain hard, only partially enclosed by the fruiting glumes. This 

 well-known, tall, and striking annual grass has erect stems and broad leaves; 



