A FEW IMPORTANT PLANT FAMILIES 73 
compact spike as in case of wheat, but in oats the little spike- 
lets are arranged in a more open cluster, thus forming a 
spreading and drooping panicle. 
In Indian corn this flower plan is modified beyond recogni- 
tion. The two essential organs are entirely separate, the 
male or staminate flowers 
forming the terminal tassel 
at the top of the plant, 
while the female or pistillate 
flowers are found on the cob, 
surrounded by the husk. 
The stem of grasses is un- 
branched, but several stems 
are produced from one seed 
by the process of stooling 
or tillering; that is, the root 
puts forth suckers and thus 
multiplies the stems. Many Scorcu Fire WHEAT 
of the perennial grasses, like 4, complete spike or “head”; 6, stem 
from which spikelets have been removed ; 
brome grass and June grass, sp, the points where they were attached ; 
also multiply and spread by ¢, spikelet, enlarged; d, single flower, 
means of rootstocks. elie #; kemel; 
The principal plants be- 
longing to this family are: (a) Those ordinarily called 
grasses, of which there are more than two hundred species 
in this country. The most important are described in 
another chapter. (6) Wheat, barley, rye, oats, corn, rice, 
sorghum, sugar cane, bamboo. 
This family of plants should be carefully distinguished 
from the sedges, which closely resemble grasses, but whose 
stems are not jointed, and are usually triangular and solid 
instead of round and hollow, as those of the grasses are. As 
