CVII. GKAJIINE.E. 
.522 
Okd. CYII. GRAMINE2E Juss. 1 
(See Tabs. VI.— IX.) 
Florets usually perfect, sometimes imperfect, sometimes neutei . 
(without either stamens or pistil), solitary, or 2 or more imbri- 
cated on a common axis or rachis contained within an involucre) 1 
consisting of 2 (sometimes 1 , rarely 0) glumes , the whole 
constituting a spikelet. Perianth f glumaceous : that of the 
fertile florets usually of 2 dissimilar glumellas ; lower or outer 
simple, usually keeled or with a midrib ; inner or upper with 2 
lateral or dorsal nerves (hence probably of 2 united) ; some- 
times one, sometimes both are wanting : of the barren florets of 
1 — 2 glumellas : of the neuter ones often rudimentary or want- 
ing. Stamens hypogynous, 1 — 6, rarely indefinite, usually 3. 
Anthers 2-celled, versatile. Ovary 1 -celled, with 1 ovule, Visually 
with 2 (rarely 1, or 0) minute hypogynous scales. Styles 2, 
rarely 1 (simple or bifid) or 3 (perhaps only 1, and 2 — 3-cleft). 
Pericarp (a caryopsis) closely incorporated with the seed. : i 
Embryo lenticular, external, lying on one side at the base of 
the farinaceous albumen. — Stems or culms usually fistulose, ge- 
nerally simple and herbaceous, knotted, sometimes branched, rarely i 
shrubby. Leaves one to each node, with a sheath slit longitu- \ 
dinally on one side, having often a membranous appendage (ligule) ! 
at its summit (Tab. 9. f. 42. b.) Flowers small, solitary, or in 
1 Here we have a structure in the flower, and a habit in the whole plant so dif- 
ferent from those of other flowering-plants, that, in the former especially, peculiar 
names have been given to its different parts, which it may be desirable to explain. 
The floral coverings, as they are termed, are glumaceous or chaffy. The outer of 
these, which do not immediately contain stamens or pistil, and are composed of one 
(see Tab. 8. f. 36. a.) or two (Tab. 6. f. 3. a.) pieces, were called by Linnaeus the 
calyx ; the pieces are the glumes or valves , and they resemble a calyx in the two- 
valved, single-flowered genera, but often they include many flowers (Tab. 7.f. *23 a.), 
and with justice are considered bracteas or leaves of an involucre: in Lecrsia and 
Nardus they are wanting. The inner, generally of a thinner texture, was by 
Linnaeus and Smith named corolla ; its pieces one (Tab. 6. f. 3. b.) or two (Tab. 6. 
f. 5. b.) in number, glumes or valves : these constitute the tru e perianth of Brown 
and are called palece by Beauv. and Kunth, valvular by Brown, Trinius, and Esen- 
beck, and glumelhs by Link ; which last we adopt as having a special reference to 
this order. Mr. Bentham restricts the term paleae to the inner glumella , calling 
the outer one a flowering glume. Within these, and at the base of the germen, are 
generally 2 collateral (rarely 1) small scales (Tab. 9. f. 42. a.}, nectary of Linn, 
and Sm., lodiculce of Beauv. and most others, and squamular hypogyrus of Brown. 
— In this order few botanists are yet agreed what ought to constitute a genus, and 
therefore we have not, with very lew exceptions, either subdivided the genera, or 
changed the nomenclature adopted in previous editions ; indeed, in a local Flora 
we do not think it desirable, if characters are thereby required of greater difficulty 
than can easily be surmounted by a student. We have likewise, for a similar 
reason, retained nearly the same arrangement of the genera as formerly, although it 
is certainly liable to great objections : the number of flowers in a spikelet vary in 1 
the same genus and even in the same species, as in Catabrosa , some species of Poa 
and Melica, &c. ; and there is a variety of one species of Bromtts, which we can 
only distinguish by very minute generic characters from Poa ( Glycerin on one 
hand, and Lolium on the other, although the genera themselves are naturally 
distinct. 
