94 THE BHACTS AND FLOWERS. 



and one ^lumo, when I could not expect any of my roattors to 

 aoo more tliiin one flower wltli three glumes. 

 "After carefully examining a great variety of genera, and com- 

 paring tliem with the nearest allied orders, it a}>})eared to mo 

 that no distinct and universally a])plicahle definition of the term 

 glumo could he given unless it were applied, as in ('iiperaceae, to 

 the whole of the prinuiry scales attached to the main axis of the 

 spikelet. After i)rinting, I ascertained that similar views had 

 heon indejjendently propounded hy Hugo, ]\rohl, Doll and others 

 in Germany, and hy fJermain do St. Pierre, in France. " 



In several of our large genera of grasses, tho only diflfcrenco 

 between tho one or two outer empty glumes and the flowering 

 ones is that they are rather smaller or rather larger, and there is 

 often more difference hetweeu the first and second empty glumes 

 than hetween the upper ompty glume and the first flowering one. 

 In couch grass the emjity and flowering glumes are precisely 

 fiimilar, very gradually diminishing in siza from the outer empty 

 to tho uppermost flowering glume. An empty glume in one 

 spikelet may correspond to a flowering one in another spikelet of 

 the same plant. In rye-grass tho spikelets are alternately placed 

 in one plane, right and left, the single empty glumo of each 

 spikelet being tho lowest and outer one, whilst the second glume 

 next the axis of inflorescence, is the lowest flowering one. In the 

 u})permost spikelet there are two empty glumes, and this is not 

 owing to tho development of an additional outer glume, for the 

 lower of the two empty ones is on the side it ought to be in the 

 regular alternation with the lower spikelets , but the second 

 glume, which in the lower spikelets encloses a flower, is in this 

 subterminal one empty. So in several Panicea3, the second or 

 third glumo, according to the genus or species, has been observed 

 sometimes, to enclose a rudimentary or male, or even a perfect 

 flower, and at other times to be quite empty, without any change 

 in its appearance. 



