24 FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 
gions to the lofty arborescent bamboos of the tropics. The inflores- 
cence consists of what are technically called spikelets, each of which 
Fic. 19.—Barnyard grass (Panicum 
Crus-galli), (After Britton and Brown, 
Ill. Fl. Northern U. S.) 
is made up of small imbricated 
chaffy scales. Some of these scales 
are empty; others enclose the sta- 
mens, usually three in number, and 
the pistil; and each of these flower- 
bearing scales usually encloses an 
additional, very slender scale known 
as the palet. Every individual floret 
thus consists of the essential organs 
of reproduction, surrounded by two 
protecting scales; one or more of 
_ the florets are borne together on a 
slender axis, forming a spikelet; 
while the innumerable spikelets may 
be clustered together in « spike, as 
in timothy, or borne in an open 
branching panicle, as in red top, 
Kentucky blue grass, and many 
other species. The leaves of these plants are so well known that the 
term grass-like is common as a standard of comparison. At the junc- 
tion of leaf and stem, where the base 
of the leaf usually forms a complete- 
ly enwrapping sheath, will be noticed 
in most cases a pecaliar membranous 
ring or protuberance; this is called 
the ligule, a name derived from its 
suggestion of a little thong or strap, 
and it is an indisputable proof, if 
present, that we have a grass and 
not a sedge or rush before us. The 
grass stem or culm is hollow, ex- 
cept at the joints. 
Little need be said of the value 
of grasses for forage and. pastur- 
age; indeed they furnish nine-tenths 
of the subsistence of domesticated 
herbivorous animals, and with the 
Fic. 20.—Forked Beard-grass (Andro- 
pagon furcatus), (After Britton and 
Brown, Ill, Fl. Northern U. 8.) 
