A Handbook of Nebraska Grasses. 7 
lapping, or, rarely grown together, envelopes the internode 
for more or less of its length (fig. 4). At the junction of the 
sheath and the blade, on the inside, is an erect membranaceous, 
hyaline, or hairy appendage, called the ligule (fig. 38, B). 
The flowers are grouped in spicate, racemose, or paniculate 
inflorescences which in turn are composed of partial inflores. 
eences, the spikelets (fig. 6). 


Figure 5 shows diagrams of a typical spike, raceme, and 
panicle. In an inflorescence, the branches are generally sub- 
tended by bracts (in grasses such bracts are wanting). In a 
spike (fig. 5, B) the flowers are sessile on an elongated main axis, 
the rachis; in a raceme (5, A) the flowers are stalked and borne 
on the rachis, in a panicle (5, C) the rachis bears racemes later- 
ally. 
The flowers, generally perfect (rarely unisexual) (figs. 6 and 
7), are arranged in spikelets which consist of a shortened axis. 
the rachilla (figs. 6, A, and 8 A), and 2 or more 2-ranked bracts 
(figs. 7, A, and 8). 
