GRAMINE^ 66i 



in Fig. 207 ; a piece of rachilla, with flowering glume and pale 

 attached, constituting the 'seed' of commerce. 



In other instances the complete individual spikelets, with their 

 empty glumes, fall off, and are sold as ' seed.' This is especially 

 the case where only one or two flowers are present upon each 

 spikelet, as in Foxtail and Yorkshire Fog. 



In examining grass seeds, special attention should be directed 

 to the presence or absence of awns, and the point from which 

 they arise — whether they are continuations of the tip of the 

 flowering glume, like those of barley, or arise on the back at 

 a point some distance from the tip, as in oats, or from near the 

 base of the glume. 



The shape of the piece of rachilla — whether flat or round in 

 section — and the way it juts out from, or lies close to, the pale, 

 are also important features, as well as the number of veins and 

 the presence or absence of hairs upon the flowering glume and 

 pale. 



The student is advised to become acquainted with the de- 

 tailed account of the structure of the inflorescence and flowers 

 of grasses given in chapter xxxiv. 



Many of the distinguishing characters of the different grasses 

 are very minute, and easily overlooked with the unaided eye. 

 Nearly all kinds are, however, readily and accurately recognised 

 by means of a pocket lens or low-power microscope. Careful 

 work and a little experience makes the task of distinguishing 

 fraudulent substitution of one kind of seed by a similar one of 

 inferior value not a very difficult one. Purchasers are particu- 

 larly warned to avoid buying mixtures of grass seeds. To unravel 

 the contents of such, and determine the value of each of the 

 constituents is difiicult, and to purchase these mixed samples is 

 to encourage fraud. Seedsmen can, without any trouble, supply 

 all seeds pure and unmixed, as they themselves rarely purchase 

 such mixtures ; and to refuse to supply them unmixed and with- 

 out guarantee should mean to the farmer that the quality is 



