GRASS FAMILY. 353 



130.- GRAMINE^, GRASS FAMILY. 



Grasses, known from other glumaceous plants by their 2-ranked 

 leaves having open slieaths, the jointed stems commonly, but not 

 always, hollow, and the glumes in pairs, viz. a pair to each spikelet 

 even when it consists of a single flower (these called glumes proper), 

 and a pair to each flower (called palets), rarely one of them want- 

 ing. Flower, when perfect, as it more commonly is, consisting of 3 

 stamens (rarely 1, 2, or 6), and a pistil, with 2 styles or a 2-cleft 

 style, and 2 either hairy or plumose-branched stigmas : ovary 1- 

 celled, 1-ovuled, becomin* a grain : the floury part is the albumen 

 of the seed, outside of which lies the embryo (Lessons, p. 16, 17, 

 fig. 38-42). 



The real structure and arrangement of the flowers and spikelets 

 of Grasses are much too difficult and recondite for a beginner. For 

 their study the Manual must be used : in which the genera both of 

 this' and the Sedge Family are illustrated by plates. Here is offered 

 merely a shorthand way of reaching the names of the commonest 

 cultivated and meadow grasses and the cereal grains. 



A. Stems hollow, or soon becoming so. 

 § 1 . Spikelets in panicles, sometimes crowded but never so as to form a spike. 

 * Flowers monoscious, the staminate and pistillate separate in the same panicle. 



ZiZcinia aciaatica, Indian Rice or Watek Oats : in water, common- 

 est N. W. ; tall and reed-like Grass, with leaves almost as large as those of 

 Indian Corn, the upper part of the ample panicle bearing pistillate flowers on 

 erect club-shapSd pedicels, the lower bearing staminate flowers on spreading 

 branches ; each flower or spikelet With only one pair of glumes, the outer one 

 long-awned; grain slender, y long, collected for food by N. W. Indians. ® 



* * Flowers one and perfect in each spikelet, with or without rudiments of others, 

 -t- Stamens 6. 



Or^za satlva, Kice. Cult. S., from Asia, in low grounds : 2°-4° high, 

 with upper surface of the lance-linear leaves rough ; branches of the panicle erect ; 

 outer glumes minute, the inner coriaceous, very much flattened laterally, so as 

 to be strongly boat-shaped or conduplicate, closing over the grain and falling 

 with it, the outer one commonly bearing an awn. ® 

 +- H- Stamens 3, or rareli/ fewer. 



Agr6stis vulgaris, Red-top. Rather low and delicate grass of meadows 



- and pastures, with oblong spreading panicle of small purple or purplish spikelets ; 



the lanceolate proper glumes thin, but much firmer than the delicate palets, 



about the length of the outer one, the upper truncate palet one half shorter. 11 



A. ilba, FiOKuj^or White Bent Grass. Less abundant in meadows, 

 the stems with procumbent or creeping base; ligule long and conspicuous ;^ 

 panicle more dense, greenish or slightly purplish ; a valuable mendow-grass. % 



Calamagrostis Canadensis, Blue-Joint Grass. In all bogs N., and 

 in reclaimed low meadows, ranch liked by cattle : 3°-.5° high ; resembles an Agros- 

 tis, but taller, and with a tuft of downy long haTrs around the flower almost of 

 its length, the lower palet with a delicate awn low down on its back and scarcely 

 stouter than the surrounding down. y. 



C. areniria, Sea Sand-Reed of beaches, where it serves a useful pur- 

 pose in binding the sand by its long running rootstocks ; has the panicle con- 

 tracted into a long spike-like inflorescence, so that it would be sought in the 

 next division ; leaves long and strong ; spikelets pale, rather rigid, the hairs at 

 the base of the palets two thirds shorter than they. % 

 S&F— 26 



