THE GRASSES. : 617 
The sedge family comes first in order, and includes the sedges 
proper, the bulrushes, cotton-grasses, and many other more or 
less familiar plants, all resembling the grasses, yet differing from 
them in essential particulars. The greater part of them have 
solid stems, called culms, around which the leaves form a closed 
sheath. The flowers are in spikes, have no calyx or corolla, and 
possess three stamens. The stem leaves, when present, are three- 
ranked, and the stems sharply angled. The fruit is one-seeded 
and forms what is technically known as an achene. e small 
beaked nutlets heaped up in the centre of a buttercup, will give 
an idea of an achene as it occurs in a totally different order of 
plants. Sedges may be regarded as weeds in every sense of the 
term, and their prevalence is an indication of swampy and poor 
ground. Unlike grasses, they are quite devoid of nutritious proper- 
ties as a rule, and are shunned by animals when any thing else is ob- 
tainable. Independent of their occasional use in the manufacture 
of baskets, they have scarcely any economic value. The papyrus 
of the Nile, from which paper and boats were made, is a somewhat 
famous exception to their general uselessness. Unfit though they 
may be to minister in any way to the benefit of man, they are yet, 
in their infinite variety and exceeding grace, most charming to any 
one whose attention has been once directed to them. 
Let us now pass to the grasses. Bearing in mind the several 
points of the above description, let us see how these differ from 
their near relations. Put them side by side and compare them. 
It will be seen that the grasses, unlike the sedges, have hollow 
stems swollen and closed at the joints, with two-ranked leaves, 
having many fine veins running parallel to the central vein or mid- 
rib, and split sheaths, the tops of which are prolonged into an 
appendage known as a “ligule,” from a Latin word signifying a 
shoe-strap. The flowers are arranged in spikes as in the timothy 
(Phleum), or in panicles as in the bent grass (Agrostis). These 
spikes and panicles differ greatly as to their concentration or diffu- 
sion, and the flowers themselves as to their appendages. Some 
are armed with long awns or bristles as in the barley and oats— 
and we wish here to testify that these are about as awkward 
things to swallow as in our juvenile days we ever tried. The 
stamens are usually three, with anthers or pollen cases attached 
only by one point, and therefore swinging freely. The styles are 
mostly two, with feathery stigmas which form charming micros- 
