THE GRAMINEjE. 



203 



posed in corymbs or spikes. Tliis family is nearly 

 allied to the preceding. 



Mxisaceoi. Herbaceous or perennial plants, 

 destitute of stem, sometimes furnished with a 

 Btype or cauliform bulb. Leaves on long petioles, 

 amplexial at the base, entire at the margins. 

 Flowers yery large, often of the most brilliant 

 colours, aggregated in great numbers, and con- 

 tained in spathas. The genera are musa, heli- 

 coma, strelitzia, iirania. The fruits of this family 

 are used as food, and highly nutritive. 



Amomeo}. Perennial herbaceous plants, of 

 peculiar aspect, somewhat resembling the orchi- 

 dese; root often tuberous and fleshy; leaves simple, 

 terminated at the base by an entire or slit sheath; 

 flowers rarely solitary, accompanied with pretty 

 large bracteas, forming dense spikes or panicles. 

 The genera are canna, maranta, thalia, phrynium, 

 myrosma, amomum,zinzioer, hellenia, costus. Many 

 useful aromatic substances are obtained from the 

 roots and seeds of species of this family, as gin- 

 ger, zedoary, cardamums. From the roots of 

 several species of maranta, arrow root is ob- 

 tained; from amomum the dye called turmeric. 



OrcMdece. Perennial herbaceous plants, some- 

 times parasitic on other vegetables; root composed 

 of simple cylindrical fibres, often accompanied 

 by two tubercles; leaves simple, alternate, and 

 .sheathing; flqwers often very large, and of a 

 peculiar form; they are solitary, fascicxilate, in 

 spikes or in panicles. An extensive and beautiful 

 family of plants, rather, however, ornamental 

 than useful. Orchis mascula affords from its 

 tubers the nutritive substance called salep. 

 ■ ITj/droc7iaridecB. Aquatic herbaceous plants, 

 having the stem leaves entire or minutely toothed, 

 sometimes spread out at the surface of the water; 

 flowers contained in spathfe, generally dioecious, 

 rarely hermaphrodite. Valisneria, stratioles, 

 otlielia, are genera of this family. 



NymplieacecB. Large beautiful plants floating 

 on the surface of water, their stem forming a 

 creeping subterranean rliizoma; entire alternate 

 leaves, cordiform or orbicular, supported on very 

 long petioles; flowers large, solitary. The genera 

 are nymphea and niipJiar. 



Balanopkore<s. Parasitic plants, living on the 

 roots of other vegetables; stem leafless, naked, 

 or covered with scales; flowers monoecious, form- 

 ing dense ovoidal spikes. 



We shall now proceed to describe in detail, 

 some of the most important families of this di- 

 vision of the vegetable kingdom. 



CHAP. XXVI. 



THE ORAMINE^ — WHEAT, BAULBT, OATS, RVE, 

 niCE, MAIZE, THE GRASSES, &C. 



The graminew form one of the most distinct 

 and valuable families of plants, consisting of the 

 different kinds of corn, the grasses, the sugar- 

 cane, and bamboo. 



The Cerealia, a genus of this family, so named 

 from Ceres the goddess of com, is the most im- 

 portant to man of all those into which vegetables 

 have been divided. It consists of several species, 

 all bearing a strong natural affinity to each other, 

 and all resting their claims, as articles of nour- 

 ishment, to the quantity of farinaceous or starchy 

 matter which their seeds contain. That one 

 among them upon which any people depends 

 chiefly for its food, is called by that people corn, 

 as wheat in England, oats in the northern low- 

 lands of Scotland, rye in the sandy districts of the 

 southern shores of the Baltic sea, rice and maize 

 throughout the United States of America. To 

 the family graminese also belong the grasses, so 

 necessary for the support of herbivorous animals, 

 especially those of the domestic kind; as also 

 the sugar cane, which fui'nishes another impor- 

 tant article of diet. 



The cerealia, or corn plants, which we shall 

 first notice, are all annuals, and herbaceous, the 

 whole plant withering away after the seed haa 

 been produced and fully ripened. Sometimes 

 this decay takes place in the stems and root be- 

 fore this latter process has been perfectly ac- 

 complished. Their stem is a culm or straw, 

 which is hollow, and divided into lengths by 

 nodes or joints ; from these joints proceed alter- 

 nate sheathing leaves, embracing the stem for 

 some length. In order to give sufficient support 

 to the light hollow straw, nature has bestowed a 

 portion of silex or flinty earth, which enters 

 largely into the composition of the outer layer 

 of the culm. Prom this circumstance their ashes 

 are found useful in imparting a polish to wood, 

 horn, ivory, and even some of the softer metals ; 

 while, however, the presence of this silicious 

 matter, and the great difficulty attending its se- 

 paration from the purely vegetable fil)re, have 

 prevented straw from being employed in the 

 manufacture of paper, for which it would other- 

 wise be adapted. The last or terminatory leaf 

 of the stem, constitutes a sheath to the newly 

 formed flower, embracing it for a time so firmly, 

 that the sheath cannot be opened without diffi- 

 culty. With the growth of the flower it bursts 

 open its protecting spatha, rises above it, and the 

 leaf then turns backwards. The head or ear 

 consists of an uncertain number of flowers; these 

 are disposed in spikes or panicles. At the base 

 are two scales, an outer and inner, fonning the 



