114 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Fertile. Having perfect pistils, producing fruit. 

 Fibrous. Having tliread-like divisions. 

 Filament. The stalk or supj)ort of the anther. 

 Filiform. Thread-like. 

 Flexuous. Bending freely. 



Floret. The flowers of grasses are sometimes called florets. 

 Foliaceous. Resembling a leaf. 



Fusiform. Spindle-shaped, largest in the middle and tapering to both ends. 



Geniculate. Bent abruptly at an angle, like a knee. 



-Genus. A group of species having a general agreement in structure. 



Glabrous. Smooth, without hairs or roughness. 



Glaucous. Having a light bluish-green color. 



Glomerate. Clustered in small roundish heads. 



Glumes. The chaflf-like leaves forming a part of the flowers. 



Herbaceous. Herb-like, not woody. 



Jlirsute. Pubescent, with rather stiff and coarse hairs. 

 Hyaline. Thin and transparent. 



Indigenous. Growing naturally, not brought from some other country. ' 



Inferior. Lower in i)osition. 



Inserted. Growing out of, or upon another. 



Internode. The space between two nodes or joints. 



Involute. Rolled together inwards. 



Imbricate. Closely overlapping each other, as frequently the flowers of a sx)ikelet. 



Joints. Thickenings in the stem where the leaves originate ; separable parts of an 

 axis ; point of issue of the Ijranches of a panicle. 



Keel. An elevated longitudinal ridge, in the middle of a leaf, glume, or palet ; re- 

 sembling the keel of a boat. 



Xamina. The free or expanded portion of a leaf, as distinguished from the petiole 

 or the sheath ; the blade of a leaf. 



Lanceolate. Tapering gradually to the apex, like a lancet. 



Lateral. At or from the side. 



Ligule. A tongue-like appendage at the upper part of the sheath of^ leaf. 



Xine. The twelfth part of an inch. 



Linear. Long and narrow, with parallel sides. 



Lobe. Some division of a glume. 



Male flower. A flower that has stamens, but without pistil. 

 Membranaceous. Thin like a membrane, generally somewhat translucent. 

 Monoecious. With stamens and pistils. 



Midrib. The central and principal nerve of a leaf or glume. 

 Mucronate. Abruptly tipped with a short awn or bristle. 

 -Nerves. The ribs or veins of a leaf, or leaf-like organ. 

 Neutral. Having neither stamens nor pistils. 

 Nodes. Knots or thickened portions in the culms. 

 Oblong. Longer than wide, with nearly parallel sides 

 Obovate. Egg-shaped, with the wider end uppermost. 

 Obtuse. Blunt or rounded at the apex. 

 Oval. Broadly elliptical, approaching the round form. 

 Ovary. That part of the pistil which contains the seed. 

 Ovate. Egg-shaped. 



J*alet or palea . The inner scale or chafi" of the proper flower, placed nearly opposite 



and a little higher on the axis than the flowering glume. 

 Fanicle. A branched and subdivided stem bearing the flowers. 

 Pedicel. A small branchlet supporting a spikelet. 

 Feduncle. The main stem or stalk of a flower spike. 

 Perennial. Living more than two years, or indefinitely. 



