CHAPTER XXXIY. 

 GRAMINE^. TRUE GRASSES. 



I. General characters of the Order. — Herbs. Roots fibrous, 

 chiefly adventitious. Stems cylindrical, hollow, with solid nodes. 

 Leaves alternate with split leaf-sheath and ligule. 



Inflorescence a spikelet, bearing chaffy bracts or glumes, which 

 hide the flowers. Flower small, bisexual, hypogynous. Perianth 

 missing, or consisting of two scales (lodicules). Androecium of 

 three stamens with versatile anthers. Gynsecium a single carpel, 

 with two feathery or brush-like stigmas ; ovary with one seed. 

 Fruit a caryopsis. 



2. This is one of the most valuable and extensive Orders- 

 of plants, and comprises between 3000 and 4000 species. To 

 it belong the cereals which supply the chief part of the food of 

 the human race, and also the meadow and pasture grasses so 

 important as food for the stock of the farm. 



The general character of the roots, stems, leaves, and flowers 

 of grasses are here dealt with, while in the subsequent chapters 

 the cereals and those grasses of which it is essential that the 

 agriculturist should possess a good knowledge are treated in 

 greater detail. 



Root. — The roots which emerge from the seeds of grasses on 

 germination are few in number and short-lived, but an extensive 

 system of adventitious, thin, fibrous roots develops later from all 

 the underground nodes of the stems. 



Stem. — The stems, which are termed culms, are cylindrical 

 and usually hollow when full-grown, except at the nodes, where 



