CHAPTER II. 



STKTTCTURE. 



A grass is the simplest form of a perfect plant. It may- 

 be described as a herb with a hollow stem, only solid at 

 the joints; leaves with parallel venation, and entire 

 margins, sheathing at the base and enclosing the stem 

 more or less, attached to it by a small scale or ligule ; 

 inflorescence of many florets, arranged in spikelets in the 

 form of a spike, raceme, or panicle, and consisting of 

 three or more scales or glumes that are empty, one or 

 more flowering glumes containing the fructifying organs, 

 the same number of palece or still thinner scales, and the 

 ovaries, stamens, etc., according to the number of florets. 

 Each floret (if fertile) produces one seed, the embryo 

 being very small. 



The roots of grasses are generally fibrous, that is, com- 

 posed of threads or suckers, which penetrate the soil to a 

 greater or less extent ; the more the fibres are developed, 

 the better the plant can bear drought, and the more it 

 impoverishes the soil. Sometimes the root is creeping, 

 throwing out underground shoots which root themselves, 

 and then throw up stems like independent plants ; such 

 species, unless their herbage is very excellent, become 



