Graminacece 



187 



(fig. 319, I.) we find there are two outer bracts (^glumes), g, g, 

 containing several flowers, some fertile and others barren, fs. 

 Each fertile flower is enveloped by two scales, one with a pro- 

 longation or awn, a, the flowering glume, or outer pale ; the 

 other, p/, more delicate, the inner pale. Within these there 

 are two minute scales, feathery above, the lodicuks. These re- 

 present all there is of the perianth (see fig. 319, 11.) ; then three 

 stamens with versatile anthers, and lastly a single ovary with 

 two feathery stigmas. 



I. II. 



Fig. 318.— a, split leaf- 

 sheath of a Grass ; h^ 

 ligule ; d, part of the 

 lamina of the leaf ; £-, 

 node of the culm. 



Fig. 319. — I. Expanded spikelet of the Oat, with a fertile 

 and a barren flower, FS ; g, glumes ; p^, ouler pale, with 

 awn, A ; Pz, inner pale ; within are the feathery stigmas. 

 II. Fertile flower with the outer pale removed. 



This is the general structure of the plants of the order ; here 

 are, however, minor points of deviation. Thus, in the Sweet- 

 smelling Vernal-grass there are four outer glumes to each 

 spikelet, in the Rye-grass one, and in the Mat-grass none. 

 Sometimes the pale is absent, as in the Foxtail ; or the lodicules, 

 as in the Vernal-grass, Mat-grass, and Foxtail. In the Rice 

 there are six stamens, and in the Mat-grass only one stigma. 

 The Indian Corn has monoecious flowers ; the staminate flowers 

 have two lodicules and three stamens ; the pistillate flowers no 

 lodicules and but one stigma. 



This large and wide-spread order is one of the most import- 



