168 WAYSIDE WEEDS. 



if they would not show any, and have nearly naked 

 blossoms. NeyerfchelesSj we shall find some of the 

 less conspicuous of the petaloids sufficiently interest- 

 ing. The glumaceous or scale-flowered division of 

 British plants is composed of two tribes only, the 

 sedges or Gyperacece, and- the grasses or Graminece, 

 The former are comparatively unimportant ; of the 

 importance, or rather necessity of the latter, to 

 man and animals, it is scarcely requisite to speak. 

 We fear the glumaceous section of Flora's family 

 is often shirked by the novitiate botanist; partly, 

 at least, from an exaggerated idea of the difficulties 

 which attend its study, and partly from the com- 

 paratively unattractive exterior of its members. 

 Let us assure our readers that the difficulties are 

 not so great, and that the interest well repays the 

 trouble of surmounting them, such as they may be< 

 But to these we shall return. Space compels us 

 to bid you gather in one " handful" certain examples 

 of the petaloids left unnoticed in our last Handful, 

 and with them the glumaceous plants too. We 

 shall find you plenty of both falling within the 

 category of " Wayside Weeds," and none more so 

 than, as the child's hymn speaks — 



" The rushes by the water 

 We gather every day." 



What plant so familiar as that with which we began 

 ourfirst experiments in textile manufacture — ^whodoes 



