30 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH GRASSES. 
adapted to our soil, and will there yield us the best return 
in both hay and herbage. Connected with this part of the 
subject we must not omit duration; as for permanent 
pasture perennial grasses are absolutely necessary, annual 
species having nothing to recommend them. 
b. The Culms of grasses, whether hard and wiry, or soft 
and pliable, bitter or saccharine, scanty or abundant, should 
also receive attention, as hay, both in quality and bulk, will 
much depend upon these circumstances. 
c. Heads of flowers.—These are aggregated from single 
locuste, spikelets, or smaller bunches or bundles of flowers 
which may vary in the following manner :— 
a. A single glumel to each pair of glume-valves. 
b. Two glumels and sets of flowers to a pair of glumes. 
ce. Three or more glumels to each pair of glume-valves. 
Each flower, or Jocusta of flowers, as 5 and ¢ would be 
termed, may be attached to the stem in various ways: 
a. On short upright footstalks (pedicels), in which the 
flowers unite into a compact head, called a spike —example, 
Foxtail grasses. 
b. On longer upright footstalks (pedicels) forming an 
upright panicle, as in Bromus mollis, soft brome. 
ce. On long and flexile footstalks (pedicels) a drooping 
panicle, as Bromus asper, rough-stalked brome. 
2. Classification—In a large group of plants, like the 
grasses, their study necessitates their arrangement into 
smaller groups or bundles in order to facilitate their analy- 
sis, to which end various characters, more or less minute, 
have been dwelt upon by different authors. We here 
choose the method of arrangement that appears to us as the 
most simple, making use of the foregoing descriptions and 
terminology as our guide. 
A.—Stamens, 2. Sryzs, 2. 
1, Anthoxanthum—panicle spicate. 
2. Hierochloe—panicle lax. 
B.—Stamens, 3. STyLe, 1. 
3. Nardus—spike unilateral. 
