136 
GRASSES. 
sents the stamens, which are three in each flower ; the filaments are of the length 
of the corolla ; the anthers are two-forked, or bifid; d is the pistil, having an eg/^'- 
shaped ovary, and two spreading and feathery styles ; at e is the seed, not havii i> 
any proper pericarp but inclosed by the two scales of the corolla : it ir -jitigle a I 
naked. 
Fig. 132 shows the orchard-grass of its natural size ; a is the stem, whicl ia a 
cylindric and jointed culm. At b is the leaf, which is long, narrow, pointed, a iple^ 
and entire. At c are the flowers, which are thick, panicled, and terminal. 
The orchard-grass is very common in the New England and Middle States. 
Of all the grasses, the darnel {LoUum) only is poison /US ; 
this plant seems to have been known in the days of Yirgil, A^ho 
in his "Pastorals" represents the shepherds speaking of the 
lolium as destructive to their flocks. The Darnel, tare or lo- 
lium^ produces its flowers in a spike, almost in the manner of 
wheat, but the calyx consists of but a single outer valve, and 
contains a spikelet of many equal flowers like a Festuca. The 
common species here naturalized is perennial, and has beardless 
flowers. The delightful odor of new hay is owing to the pres- 
ence of the Antlioxanthum odoratum. The flowers, when ma- 
ture, form a yellow, chaffy spike. 
CLASS TETEANDEIA, FOUE STAMENS. 
177. The same number of stamens are found in plants of this 
class as in those of the class Didynamia, but in the former the 
stamens are of equal length. We here meet with no large 
What does Fig. 132 represeuti — Which of the grasses is poisonous 1 — 177. Class Tetrandria. 
