ENDOGENOUS OR MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



497 



was made from the stems of Cyperus Papyrus. The tubers of 

 C. esculentus are sweet and edible, but are too small to be of much 

 value for food. 



960. Ord. GramineSB ( Grass Family). Stems (culms) cylindrical, 

 mostly hollow, and closed at the nodes. Sheaths of the leaves spUt 

 or open. Flowers in little spikelets, consisting of two-ranked imbri- 

 cated bracts ; of which the exterior are called glumes, and the two 

 that immediately enclose each flower, palece. Perianth none, or in 

 the form of very small and membranous hypogynous scales, from 

 one to three in number, distinct or united (termed squamulcB, squa- 

 mella, or lodicvlee). Stamens commonly tliree : anthers versatile. 

 Styles or stigmas two ; the latter feathery. Fruit a caryopsis. 

 Embryo situated on the outside of the farinaceous albumen, next the 



FIG. 1258. Scirpus triqnetcr, with itB clueter of spikelets. 1259. A separate flower, en- 

 larged, showing its rudimentary perianth of a few denticulate bristles, its three stamens, and 

 pistil with a three-cleft style : o, section of the seed, showing the minute embryo. 1260. Ca- 

 res Careyana, reduced in size (flowers monoecious, the two kinds in different spikes). 1261. 

 Stem, with the staminate and upper pistillate spike, of the size of nature. 1262. A scale of 

 the staminate spike, with the flower (coiislstlng merely of three stamens) in its axil. 1263. 

 Magnified pistillate flower, with its scale or bract : the ovary enclosed in a kind of sac {perigy- 

 nium), formed by the union of two bractlets. 1964. Cross-section of the perigynium ; with 

 the pistil, Pf removed. 1265. Vertical section of the achenium, showing the seed. 



42* 



