THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



243 



enables so slender a column to bear 

 erect such a weighty head of grain. 

 The lower portion of each leaf encircles 

 the stem so as to form a sheathing 

 envelope, which although folded over 

 is not united and can be easily unrolled. 

 This sheath extends beyond the node, 

 immediately above and where the flat 

 portion of the leaf projects, there is a 

 curious membraneous scale called the 

 ligule. The long flat narrow leaves 

 are marked with longitudinal veins or 

 furrows, thickly beset with sharp spiny 

 teeth all pointing forward on the upper 

 surface and backward on the underside, 

 and offering a distinct resistance to 

 the finger if drawn along its surface. 

 Coming now to the consideration of 

 the flowers, it may surprise some who 

 have never once thought that barley 

 bore flowers at all, because they are 

 not so gaudy and obtrusive as those 

 of the poppy to wit, who flaunt their 

 gorgeous corollas side by side with 

 them. The reason for this is very 

 obvious, for the fertilization of barley 

 not being dependent upon the visits 

 visits of insects it therefore makes no 

 effort to attract them, but as it is 

 fertilised by the agency of the wind its 

 blossoms are admirably constructed to 

 attain that end. There is a strong 

 similarity amongst the flowers of 

 grasses, and a typical one may be com- 

 pared with the floral organs of a common 

 plant like a buttercup for example. In 

 a grass there are usually two or three 



florets together, forming a spikelet, and 

 springing from the same part of the 

 floral axis and enveloped by two scaly 

 bracts, these are called glumes, and 

 form the chaff of wheat, oats, &c. they 

 are analagous to the scales of the in- 

 volucre in Composites. Taking an in- 

 dividual floret two chaffy scales are 

 seen, investing less or more closely the 

 central organs, these called paleas re- 

 present the calyx of ordinary flowers. 

 Within these by careful dissection may 

 be discovered two minute fringed or 

 fingered bodies, called lodicules, the 

 analogues of the corolla. In the centre 

 is the ovary, surmounted by two feath- 

 ery styles, and surrounded by the three 

 stamens. It will be seen that every 

 flower of a grass is therefore complete 

 in itself, having stamens and styles, but 

 also that it is very irregular. Belong- 

 ing to the division of monocotyledons, 

 in which the parts of the flower are 

 normally in threes, it is found that one 

 of each row except the stamens has 

 been suppressed. Bearing this in 

 mind a little attention will soon enable 

 any one to comprehend the structure 

 of the flower of a grass, although there 

 is an endless diversity of details in the 

 various genera and species. During 

 any day of bright sunshine throughout 

 the summer, the student cannot fail to 

 find if he look for it, some one or 

 other species of grass, with its palese 

 expanded, its versatile stamens hang- 

 ing out, and its feathery stigmas dis* 



