PLANT FAMILIES: GRAMINE^. 



259 



and because they bear no flower in their axils are empty glumes. 

 ^Vithin these empty glumes and a little higher on the axis of the 

 spike is seen a boat -shaped body, formed of a scale, the margins 

 of which are folded around the flowers within, and the edges 

 inroUed in a peculiar manner when mature. From the back of 

 this glume is borne usually an awn. If we carefully remove 

 this scale, the "flower glume," we find that there is another 

 scale on the opposite (inner) side, and much smaller. This is 

 the "palet." 



505. Next above this we have the flower, and the most prom- 

 inent part of the flower, as we see, is the short pistil with the two 

 plume-like styles, and thethree stamens at fig. 332. But if we 

 are careful in the dissection 

 of the parts we shall see, on 

 looking close below the pistil 

 on the side of the flowering 

 glume, that there are two 

 minute scales (fig. 334). 

 These are what are termed 

 the lodicules, considered by 

 some to be merely bracts, 

 by others to represent a pe- 

 rianth, that is two of the 

 sepals, the third sepal hav- 

 ing entirely aborted. Ru- 

 diments of this third sepal *'ig- 335- 



, Diagram of oat spikelet. Gl, glumes ; B, palets; 



are present m some of the ^, abortive flower. 

 graminese. 



506. To the gramineae belong also the wheat, barley, com, 

 the grasses, etc. The gramines, while belonging to the class 

 monocotyledons, are less closely allied to the other families of 

 the class than these families are to each other. For this reason 

 they are regarded as a very natural group. 



507. The sedge family (oyperacese). Carex — As a representative of the 

 sedges a species of the genus carex may be studied. If plants of Carex 

 lupulina are taken from the soil carefully we find that there is an under- 



