THK (iKASSKS OF Tknnksskk. 6 



parallel edges. Such leaves are called linear. I'rom tliis form the 

 leaves may vary to lanceolate or oi^ate in outline. Sometimes the 

 narrow leaves have their edges rolled inward, when they are said 

 to be involute. Occasionally the leaf-blade is very short, and some- 

 times it is wanting altogether, the sheath alone remaining. As to 

 the surfaces of the leaves and sheaths, they may be smooth or 

 rough, or more or less hairy. The terms used here are those of 

 general application. 



The position of the leaves on the stem is to be noted as afTording 

 a ready character for distinguishing grasses from the nearly allied 

 grass-like sedges. Starting with any leaf on the stem of a grass, 

 the next leaf above will be exactly on the opposite side of the 

 stem, while the next or second leaf above will stand directly over 

 the starting-point. Such an arrangement is called distichous or two- 

 ranked; i. e., in counting two leaves from the first we pass com- 

 pletely around the stem. In sedges the leaf-arrangement is three- 

 ranked; it is the third leaf from the first which stands directly 

 above the first. 



The Flowkrs. — The flowers of grasses possess only the essential 

 organs— the stamens and pistils. The bracts enclosing these are mod- 

 ified leaves or leaf-sheaths and prophylla. vSometimes the sta- 

 mens and pistils are separated, when the flowers are either male 

 or staminate (containing stamens only), or female or //V//7/^/^ (con- 

 taining pistils only). These staminate and pistillate flowers may 

 occupy different parts of the same plant or (more rarely) entirely 

 distinct plants. Flowers having both stamens and pistils are 

 termed hermaphrodite. 



In each flower there are usually three stamens. These have 

 slender filaments, and usually versatile, sometimes basi-fixed, two- 

 celled anthers, which are pale yellow, sometimes nearly white, or 

 purple, or some shade of red. The pistil consists of the ovary and 

 usually two feathery or plumose stigmas, which may be sessile or 

 raised on short or long and more or less divided styles. 



The fruit or ripened ovary constitutes the "grain." This is a 

 true caryopsis, i. e., a dry one-seeded fruit in which the outer cover- 

 ing or/^r/Var/ is closely adherent to the seed. The "grass seed" 

 of commerce consists of the grain enveloped usually in more or 

 less "chaff," (glumes and paleas). 



Arrangement of the Flowers. — The arrangement of the flowers in 

 grasses is peculiar. They are situated in what are termed spikelets, 

 either solitary (one-flowered spikelets,) or two or more together 

 (two to several or many-flowered spikelets). Each flower is 

 located in the axil of a chaff-like bract or glume called the floiver- 

 ^^ing glume, (really a leaf-sheath). At the base of the spikelet there 

 are usually two bracts or glumes having no flowers in their axils; 



