» CiRAMIXP:.E. 



climbing, often creeping and rooting at the base; some of tlie Bton- 

 buxm shrubby or ahnost arborescent. Steins, cut»'s, simple or 

 branclied, usually hollow between the nodes. Leaves alternate, 

 <listichous; the sheatiis while growing often split open opposite 

 the base of the blade and often terminate within the blade in a 

 scarious or ciliate appendage, the liyide ; blade entire, parallel- 

 veined, sometimes with sniiiU netted veins, usually long and nar- 

 row ; a '2-keeled membranous prophylUdn stands between each 

 branch and the main axis. 



There are in the (Jramiuea? proliably about 3500 species, the 

 family ranking fiftli in size a.i:ong flowering plants, and among 

 monocotyledons is only exceeded by the Orchidaceae. The family 

 is allied most nearly to the Cyperacea'. 



IMPORTANT WORKS ON (JKAMINE.E.* 



*' A considerable proportion of Graminetv are almost cosmo- 

 politan in tlieir geograi)hical distribution within or without the 

 tropics, often covering the ground M-ith innumerable individuals. 

 (Jrasses are easily dried, abound in herbaria in specimens readily 

 exhibiting their most essential characters: and every local botanist 

 considers himst'lf i)erfectly competent to describe as new species or 

 genera suggested oidy by comparison with the few forms known to 

 him from the same limited locality. The consequence is tliat tiie 

 number of bad species and genera of (iramineiv with which science 

 has been overwhelmed is truly api)alling. 



"The paramount importance of the order in an cconomiiial 

 ]>oint of view lias called forth innumerable treatises, memoirs, aiid 

 essays on cereals, on forage and otiier cultivated grasses, on niciid- 

 ows and i)astures. on ornamental grasses, on the i)hysio!ogy and 

 proj)erties of the order. 



" In a systematic ])oint of view, the great mistake of Ijinna'us 

 and the earlier systeniatists was the attempt to regard the whole 

 spikelet as a single flower, with a calyx and coralla to be compared 



♦Notes cm (jlraiuiiieii', by Ueoige Uenthuiu, F.U.S., Jourii. Linn, Soe., xi.\. 

 ]). 18 aUstruft. 



