890 



LV. GEAMINE^. 



Bambusa ThouarslU 



Bamboo. 

 Embryo (mag.). 



^gilops onata. 

 Caryopsis Cmag. 



ligulate sheath, their usually fistular culm, with swollen knots, which form septa at the point of junction 

 with the leaves. The arborescent Grmninecs, and notably the Bamboos, of which the flower is hexandrous 

 and furnished with a whorl of three glumelles, offer some points of resemblance with Palms. 



Brongniart has recently observed the phenomena of sleep in Strephium guyanense, belonging to the 

 tribe Paniceis ; its leaves, which spread during the day, are erect and close over each other at night, like 

 those of the Sensitive-plant and some other Mimosets. 



This immense family is distributed over all the globe, from the tropics to the frozen regions ; the 

 majority inhabit the temperate zone, but Panicece, CMoridete, Oryzece, Andropog<me(S and Bamboos are 

 especially tropical. The native country of the cultivated cereals is still unknown. 



Grttminecs contain in their herbage, and especially in their seeds, nutritious principles, which 

 entitle them to the first rank amongst plants useful to man, and which are of the greatest importance in 

 an economic and political point of view. Besides starch, sugar and mucilage, they yield sulpho-azotized 

 matters (Jihrine, casein, albumine), elements estential to the formation of flesh in animals, and especially 

 phosphate of lime, which is the basis of their bony framework. The Oerealia, whose seeds abound in 

 starch, azotized matter and phosphates, are: — Wheat (^Triticum sativum), Tlye (JSecale cereoZe), Barley 

 {Hordmm vulgare, distiohum, &c.), Oats {Avena sativa), all cultivated by the Caucasian race in the northern 

 and temperate regions. Kice (Oryza sativa) and Millet {Panicum miliacmm) originated amongst the Asiatic 



