. 
GRAMINACEOUS PLANTS. 287 
The rushes have flowers herbaceous, dry, 
and permanent, hypogynous, bisexual, scaly, 
15. JUNCALS scarious, if coloured; albumen copious ; em- LVI. Juncacee 
i : bryo, minute and undivided in the Rushes ; LIX, Orontiacee. 
: the Oron- 
axile with a cleft on one side in 
tiaceez. 
( Flowers hexapetaloid, succulent, wither- 
th Aed 
ing, albumen copious. P: 
by a calycine, involucres, inner bracts, co- pee 
loured, and petaloid in Gilliesiacez, naked | ao Np emo 
16, Linrats. 4 and flat when withering; anthers turned L LXII, Lilisces. 
outward in Melanthaceee, anthers turned LXI. Puntededas iis 
inward in Liliaces ; ianth naked ; ci ‘ ey 
nate anthers turned inwards in Ponte- 
\ deracez. 
Flowers, three, six petalous, hypogynous, 
with separate carpels, without albumen ; 
) 
sometimes bisexual ; many-seeded in Buto- LXTV, Butomacee. 
17. ALISMALS, mace; few-seeded, simple, and axial, with LXV, Alismacee. 
: solid embryo in Alismaceze; flower scaly, LXVI. Juncaginacez. 
few-seeded, simple, and axial, with large 
plumula in Juncaginaceex, 
GLuUMACEOUS PLANTs. 
So called from their flowers being composed of bracts and not col- 
lected in whorls, but consisting of imbricated colourless or herba- 
ceous scales. The grasses and sedges of which they consist constitute 
avery large proportion of the vegetation of the globe, covering our 
fields with verdure, and furnishing food for man and beast. They are 
provided with stamens and pistils, which are indispensable to the 
production of seeds, but there is scarcely a trace of calyx or corolla. 
is division of Endogens is thus distinguished : the Graminacee by 
| their roots, generally fibrous, their round, hollow, and prominently 
Jointed stems, their slender, parallel ribbed leaves with slit sheaths ; 
the Cyperacea, or sedges, by their creeping roots, angular and 
solid stems, and inconspicuous joints; the Juncacee by their round 
tapering stems, and many-seeded capsular fruits; the Eriocaulacee, 
by their angular stem and capitate inflorescence ; the Typhacee, 
by their erect tapering stem and densile spiked inflorescence ; 
and in the arums or Aracee, by their foliage dilated in A. macu- 
latum, with scented leaves and succulent fruit in A. corus. 
Tue Gramrnace®, or Grasses.—The important family of grasses, 
to which the Oat-grass belongs, supplies us also with Wheat, Rice, 
ye, Barley, Maize, and the Sugar-cane; and constitute, besides, 
grass of our meadows and our hill-sides. The Oat is an annual, 
the lower stem of which forms a short rhizome, from which 
‘econdary stems emanate: these are interrupted by brown in- 
flated nodes or joints, which become solid, whilst the parts inter- 
