176 WAYSIDE WEEDS. 



this curious and beautiful little plant with the 

 other petaloids generally, but look at it simply as 

 one of our wayside weeds, well-deserving in itself 

 your attention. Moreover, do not omit to examine 

 the delicate sheaths which tip the root fibre of each 

 little leaflet. 



Passing on to the glumaceous or second section 

 of the British monocotyledons, we find it divided 

 between the Oyperacese or sedge tribes, and the 

 Gramineee or grasses. As regards the former, we 

 much fear that few of our uninstructed readers will 

 recognize them as wayside weeds, common as they 

 are. The cotton grass, it is true, attracts attention 

 when its many heads of white, cottony, almost 

 silky fibre, whiten the moorland in summer, but 

 then all the flowering characters are gone. The 

 bull-rushes or club-rushes may be known to some, 

 but the sedge proper, or Garex family, is the most 

 numerous in the division, numbering almost seventy 

 British, species. We must rest content with one 

 illustration (Fig. 105), wHch may lead you to recog- 

 nize the first sedge you meet with, by land or water. 

 The barren spike (Fig. 105, a) consists of stamens 

 only, witli a single scale (Fig. 105, c) at tlieir base. 

 These wither up after flowering. Tbe fertile spikes 

 (Fig. 105, b) consist of pistils only, each pistil like- 

 wise supported by its scale (Fig. 105, d), which 

 finally protects the fruit (Fig. J.05, e). The stems 

 are of well-marked triangular form (Fig. 105, /). 



