ORDER DIGYNLA. 
185 
blossom ; it is also remarkable for its graceful pannicle, or the 
manner in which its flowers grow upon their stalks. 
The rye, (Secale,) has two flowers within the same husk. 
The wheat, (Triticum,) has three ; the interior valve of the co- 
rolla of the wheat is usually bearded. The filaments in the rye 
and wheat are exsert , that is, they hang out beyond the corolla ; 
from which circumstance, these grains are more exposed to inju- 
ry from heavy rains than others whose filaments are shorter. 
Perhaps, in the whole of the vegetable kingdom, although 
there are many plants of much greater brilliancy of appearance, 
there are none which are so important to man as the gramineous 
family. This is supposed to include nearly one sixth part of 
the whole vegetable world. Grasses cover the earth as with a 
green carpet, and furnish food for man and beast. Some of the 
grasses most valuable as furnishing food for cattle, are herds- 
grass (Phleum pratense,) and meadow grass (Poa,) orchard 
grass, (dactylis,) and oats. Those which are used in various 
ways as food for man, are wheat, rye, barley, and indian corn ; 
this latter, botanically called Zea mays , although of the natural 
family of the grasses, having a culm-like stalk and other distin- 
guishing characteristics of grass-like plants, is yet placed in the 
class Moncecia, as the stamens and pistils are separated in differ- 
ent flowers, growing from the same root. The styles, long, 
slender, and exserted , form what is called the silk: they are 
thus favorably situated for receiving the fertilizing pollen which 
is showered down from the staminate flowers. 
The fruit of corn, wheat, rye, &c. is called grain. Grain then 
consists of the seed with its pericarp ; these are not easily dis- 
tinguished from each other till the grain is ground into flour ; 
the pericarp separating from the seed then forms what is called 
the bran, and the seed the flour or meal. 
The sugar cane, (Saccharum oflicinaru.m,') is of the grass 
family, it. is supposed to have been brought from the South of 
Europe to the West Indies. The stem or culm, which some- 
times grows to the height of twenty feet, affords the juice from 
which the sugar is made. 
The Bamboo, (Arundo bambos ,) of the East Indies, a species 
of reed, which is said to attain in some situations, the height of 
sixty feet, is also of this class. The Sedge, (Carex,) is a gram- 
ineous plant, but it bears staminate and pistillate flowers, and 
is therefore placed in the class Moncecia. The carexes* consti- 
tute a very numerous family of plants. To assist you in analy- 
zing the grasses, we have here a drawing of the Dactylis glo- 
* The plural of carex according to the Latin termination is carices. 
Importance of grass like plants. — Sugar cane — Bamboo. 
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