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CLASS TETRANDRIA. 
merata] or orchard grass. We first notice the different parts 
which belong to the flower. 
1. Calyx, i two-valved, compressed, keeled, II acute, one valve shorter 
than the floret, the other longer. 
2. Corolla, two-valved, compressed, oblong, acute, one valve within the 
larger valve of the calyx, keeled. 
3. Stamens, filaments, three of the length of the corolla, anthers two- 
forked. 
4. Pistil, germ, egg-shaped, styles, two, spreading and feathery. 
5. Pericarp, wanting, the scales of the corolla enclosing the seed, and 
afterwards opening and throwing them out. 
6. Seed, a single one, flattened on one side, and convex on the other, 
naked, or without any kind of appendages. 
The other parts of the plant are, 
1. Stem, a culiji or straw, cylindric, jointed. 
2. Leaves, long, and narrow, pointed, simple, entire, surrounding the 
culm at their base, and thus forming a kind of sheath. 
3. Flowers, thick, panicled, terminal. 
This is a very common grass in the New England and Mid- 
dle states. 
Of all the grasses, the darnel, (Lolium,) only is poisonous ; 
this seemed to have been avoided in the days of Virgil, who, in 
his “ Pastorals,” represents the shepherds as speaking of the 
lolium as destructive to their flocks. 
CLASS IV TETRANDRIA. 
The same number of stamens are found in the plants of this 
class, as in those of the 13th class, Didynamia. In the fourth 
class the stamens are of equal length, but in the thirteenth they 
grow in two pairs of unequal length. 
ORDER MONOGYNIA. 
The first order of the fourth class is divided into five sections, 
as follows : 
First, flowers with one petal, situated below the germ. 
Second, above the germ. 
77 lied, flowers four pet ailed below the germ. 
t Glomerata signifies a cluster, alluding to the crowded panicles of flow- 
Cl tThe parts of the calyx, and also of the corolla, are called glumes ; they 
are all much alike in appearance, being merely a set of sheaths, for the 
purpose of protecting the stamens ; they arc not distinguished by any dif- 
ference in colour from the leaves or stem. The anthers, which are usually 
yellow, are the only part of the blossom of the grasses which is coloured. 
J i| Resembling the keel of a boat. 
Analysis of the orchard grass— Class Tetrandria— Order Monogynia— 
How divided. 
