THE PRINCIPLES OP BOTANY. 
679 
Alliance VII. GLUMALES. Glumaceous Endogens. 
This is not only the largest but one of the most important 
of the divisions of vegetable life, for, as Professor Lindley tells 
us in his f Vegetable Kingdom/ “The great mass of herbage 
known by the names of sedges and grasses, constitutes 
perhaps a twelfth part of the described species of flowering 
plants, and at least nine-tenths of the number of individuals 
composing the vegetation of the world : for it is the chief 
source of that verdure which covers the earth of northern 
countries with a gay carpet during the months of winter.” 
This carpet, it should be remembered, is not merely of 
interest as a varied pile to beautify the surface of our fields, 
or as affording an agreeable foothold, but each species is 
either good or useless as food, while at the same time 
different species indicate a fertile or infertile condition of 
soil. 
Taking for example the two great divisions, grasses and 
sedges. The first for the most part affects our meadows and 
pastures, while the latter is a denizen of the bog or water 
course. 
The one is replete with nutritious pasture plants, while the 
other consists of species having a very low nutritive value 
indeed. 
But again, if we wish to estimate the value of the grasses 
we must not forget that several species, in virtue of their 
large seeds, are grown principally for their grain, facts which 
will impel us to review them in several groups. 
1. Grasses which produce grain. 
2. Grasses with succulent and nutritious herbage. 
3. Grasses with harsh coarse herbage innutritious, and thus 
approximating to 
4. Sedges. Grass-like herbs, but wholly devoid of value as 
grain or fodder plants. 
Both grasses and sedges, though without highly coloured 
flowers, have these with very distinctive parts, possessing 
both stamens and pistils of very distinct structure. In grasses 
the floral envelopes consist of two sets, sometimes called 
pales , hence then the outer pair, calyx, is called the outer pale ; 
the inner pair, corolla, the inner pale. 
Each of these usually consists of two valves, one situate 
outer and lower as regards the other, thus taking the order 
of growth — namely, alternate — as in the true leaves of 
grasses. 
These parts we have named calyx and corolla, sometimes 
glumes, in obedience to custom and for the sake of con- 
