10 



ELEMENTS OP BOTANY. 



1-many-flowered spikelets ; these are variously grouped in 

 spikes, panicles (Figs. 183, 211 A), and so on. The fruit is 

 a grain (Mg. 9). 



(The family is too difficult for the beginner, but the struc- 

 ture and grouping of the flowers may be gathered from a care- 

 ful study of Figs. 210, 211.) 



CYPERACE.a;, SEDGE FAMILY. 



Grass-like or rush-like herbs, with solid, usually triangular, 

 stems, growing in tufts. The sheathing base of the generally 

 3-ranked leaves, when present, 

 is not slit as in grasses. The 

 flowers are usually somewhat 

 less enclosed by bracts than 

 those of grasses ; the perianth 

 is absent or rudimentary; 

 stamens generally 3 ; style 2- 

 cleft or 3-cleft. 



Fig. 210. —Diagram of Inflo- 

 rcBcence of a Grass. 



£f, sterile glumes ; Pi, a flower- 

 ing glume ; P^, a scaly bract 

 (palet) : e, transparent scales 

 (lodicules) at tbe ba£e of tlie 

 flower ; 5, the flower. 



Fig. 211. — Fescue-Grass {Festuca 



pratensis). 



A, spikelet (compare Fig. 210); B, a 



flower, the lodicules in front and the 



palea behind; C, alodicule; Z), orary. 



