THE ARROW-GRASS TRIBE. 247 



Upon the receptacle, without any stalk. The pistil is 

 an oval body, terminated hy a deeply lobed stigma 

 (fig. 3.), and having in its ovary but one cell, from 

 the summit of which hancfs a sin"-le ovule. The fruit 

 contains one seed ( fi(j. 6.), consisting of a mass of 

 albumen (Jig. ?•)» ^^ ^^^ further end of which lies a 

 minute embryo (Jig. 8.). 



It is obvious that this is an organization much more 

 imperfect than that of the Monocotyledonous orders 

 we have before examined ; in room of an evident 

 calyx and corolla, we have nothing but three scales, 

 there is no trace of the number three in the ovary, 

 and the stamens and pistils are separated from each 

 other. In the Bullrush itself, the imperfection is yet 

 greater ; even the scales, which in the Bur-reed re- 

 present the calyx, are wanting, and no hing appears 

 in their room but a quantity of delicate black hairs. 



Nearly allied to the Bullrushes, like them useless 

 to man, as far as we know, and equally inhabiting 

 wet and spongy soils, are some little inconspicuous 

 plants, called by the learned Triglochin, and by others 

 Arrow-grasses. These, and some allied genera, form 

 an order called the Arrow-grass tribe (Juncagineae, 

 Plate XXI. 2.), in which incompleteness of structure 

 exist in a less degree than in the Bullrushes, for they 

 have a calyx and corolla, and the usual number of 

 stamens ; but the former are more like scales than 

 sepals and petals, and the ovary, although it has the 

 usual ternary structure of Monocotyledons, is never- 

 theless in an imperfect state. 



Marsh Arrow-grass (Triglochin palustre), is a little 



