GRAMINE^ 6S9 



Buckwheat (/"(p/y^wiz^/// Fagopyrum L.). The fruits are sown 

 for a crop. 



Form and Size. — They are oval, pointed at each end and 

 triangular in section, resembling those of the dock (2, Fig. 199). 

 They contain one seed each and, at the base, the five-partite 

 calyx is generally seen. Length 5-6 mm., width across the 

 widest part of one side of the fruit is about 3 mm. 



Colour and Brightness. — The colour is dark brown with a 

 greyish tinge, and the surface smooth and shining. In old 

 samples the seeds tend to split along the edges. 



The Purity is generally high and the Germination 

 Capacity in good samples about 85 per cent. 



GBAMINE.Si. — This Order comprises all the true grasses, 

 and although we are here only concerned with their ' seeds ' 

 it is only by means of a thorough and extended knowledge of 

 the habits and peculiarities of their growth that the best use 

 can be made of them in leys and temporary and permanent 

 pastures. For information upon these points the student is 

 referred to chapters xl. and xli. 



The flowers of the grasses are very minute structures, which 

 lie between two chafify leaves or glumes, one of which, usually the 

 larger— is called t\it flowering glume, the other, tht pale. When 

 the fruit (caryopsis) is produced from the flower it is of course 

 present between these two chaffy glumes, and may either be 

 (i) quite free from them as in wheat, where the fruit or grain 

 readily falls out of its glumes when the ear is thrashed or rubbed 

 in the hand, or (2) quite free from the glumes and capable of 

 being separated from them by means of the finger nails, yet 

 enclosed so closely by them that the fruit does not fall out on 

 thrashing, as in oats, or (3) as in barley where the fruit is grown 

 into union with its enclosing glumes, and cannot be separated 

 from them except by special means. 



Most of the ' grass seeds ' used by the farmer are similar in 

 structure to oats, none of them being sold in the form of naked 



