992 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



species of Calamagrostis are exserted, pro- 

 truding beyond the spikelet. 



Falcate. Scimiter-shaped, curved sidewise 

 and flat, tapering upward. Said of certain 

 asymmetric blades. 



Fascicle. A little bundle or cluster. Said of 

 clustered leaves, branches of a panicle, 

 and spikes or racemes on an axis. 



Ferruginous. Rust-colored. 



Fertile. Capable of producing fruit, having 

 pistils. A fertile floret may be pistillate or 

 perfect. 



Fibrillose. Furnished with fibers. Said espe- 

 cially of the old basal sheaths of some 

 grasses. 



Filiform. Threadlike. 



Fimbriate. Fringed, the hairs longer or 

 coarser as compared with ciliate. 



Flabellate. Fan-shaped. Said of the lemmas 

 of Neostapfia and the inflorescence of 

 Miscanthus sinensis. 



Flexuous. Bent alternately in opposite 

 directions. 



Floret. The lemma and palea with included 

 flower (stamens and pistil). Florets may 

 be perfect, staminate, pistillate, neuter, 

 sterile, and so on. 



Folded. Conduplicate. Said chiefly of blades. 



Fruit. The ripened pistil. In grasses the fruit 

 is usually a caryopsis. The term fruit is 

 also applied to the caryopsis and parts 

 that may enclose it permanently at matu- 

 rity. In Panicum the indurate fertile lemma 

 and palea with the enclosed caryopsis is 

 the fruit. In Cenchrus it is the entire bur. 



Fuscous. Dusky, brownish gray. 



Fusiform. Spindle-shaped. A solid that is 

 terete in the middle and tapering toward 

 each end. 



Geniculate. Bent abruptl} 7- . Said of awns and 

 of the lower nodes of the culm. 



Gibbous. Swollen on one side, as the second 

 glume of Sacciolepis. 



Glabrous. Without hairs of any sort. 



Gland. A protuberance or depression, usually 

 minute, that secretes, or appears to secrete, 

 a fluid. Glandular. Supplied with glands. 

 The glands may be depressed as in Era- 

 grostis cilianensis and Heteropogon melan- 

 ocarpus. 



Glaucous. Covered with a waxy coating that 

 gives a blue-green color as in the leaf of 

 the cabbage, and the bloom of the grape. 



Glomerate. Collected in heads. 



Glumes. The pair of bracts at the base of a 

 spikelet. 



Gregarious. Growing in groups or masses. 



Herbaceous. Having the characters of an 

 herb; opposed to woody; thin in texture 

 and green in color, as the herbaceous 

 lemmas of Poa. 



Hirsute. Pubescent with straight rather stiff 

 hairs. Hirsutulous, hirtellous. Minutely 

 hirsute. 



Hispid. Pubescent with stiff or rigid hairs. 

 Hispidulous. Diminutive of hispid. 



Hyaline. Thin and translucent or trans- 

 parent. 



Imbricate. Overlapping, as the lemmas in 

 many spikelets. 



Implicate. Tangled, as the branches of the 

 panicle of Panicum implicatum. 



Indurate. Hard. Compare chartaceous and 

 coriaceous. 



Inflated. Puffed up, bladdery. 



Inflexed. Turned in at the margins. Said 

 especially of the margin of the glumes or 

 lemmas in some species. 



Inflorescence. The flowering part of a plant. 



Innovation. The basal shoot of a perennial 

 grass. 



Internerves. The spaces between the nerves. 

 Said of glumes and lemmas. 



Internode. The part of a stem between two 

 successive nodes. 



Interrupted. The continuity broken. Said 

 especially of dense inflorescences whose 

 continuity is broken by gaps. 



Involucre. A circle of bracts below a flower 

 or flower cluster. In grasses applied to the 

 cluster of bristles or sterile branchlets 

 below the spikelets in Pennisetum and a 

 few other genera, and to the bony bead of 

 Coix. 



Involute. Rolled inward from the edges, the 

 upper surface within. Said of blades. 



Joint. The node of a grass culm. The inter- 

 node of an articulate rachis. 



Keel. The sharp fold at the back of a com- 

 pressed sheath, blade, glume, or lemma. 

 The palea and sometimes the glumes and 

 lemmas may be two-keeled. Keel is used 

 because of the similarity to the keel of a 

 boat. 



Lacerate. Torn at the edge or irregularly 

 cleft, as in some ligules. 



Lanate. Woolly, clothed with long tangled 

 hairs. 



Lanceolate. Rather narrow (surface), taper- 

 ing to both ends, the broadest part below 

 the middle. 



Laterally (compressed). Flattened from the 

 sides, as certain spikelets, glumes, and 

 lemmas. 



Lax. Loose. Said of a soft or open inflores- 

 cence and of soft or drooping foliage. 



Leaf. The lateral organ of a stem, in grasses 

 consisting of sheath and blade. 



Lemma. The bract of a spikelet above the 

 pair of glumes. 



Ligule. The thin appendage or ring of hairs 

 on the inside of a leaf at the junction of 

 sheath and blade. 



Linear. Long and narrow with parallel sides. 

 Said of surfaces, such as a blade. Said also 

 of spikelets and other organs, having in 

 mind the shape of a longitudinal section. 



Lobe. A segment of an organ, usually rounded 

 or obtuse. Applied especially to the divi- 

 sions of a cleft lemma. 



Loose. Open. Said of panicles. The opposite 

 of dense or compact. 



Membranaceous. Thin, like a membrane. 



