304 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
than a Rush. It is found abundantly on black turf bogs and mountain moors in every part of Great Britain^ 
and its flowers appear in July and August. The name of Narthecium is derived from a Greek word signifying 
a rod, in allusion to the elongated straight raceme of flowers. 
GLUMACEOUS PLANTS. 
These plants, which include only the Sedges and the Grasses, are those which have no regular petals to their 
flowers, but have instead either bracteas, or a kind of bracteae called glumes. 
' O 
CHAPTER LXXXI. 
THE SEDGE FAMILY. (CYPERACEyE, Juss .) 
Character of the Order. —Flowers hermaphrodite, or bisexual, 
consisting of imbricated solitary bracteae, very rarely inclosing other 
bractese called glumes. Stamens hypogynous, definite, one, two, three, 
four, six, or twelve; anthers fixed by their base, entire, two-celled. 
Ovary one-seeded, often surrounded by bristles called hypogynous 
sets, probably constituting the rudiments of a perianthium; ovulum 
erect; style single, trifid or bifid ; stigmas undivided, occasionally bifid. 
Nut crustaceous or bony. Albumen of the same figure as the seed ; 
embryo lenticular, undivided, inclosed within the base of the albumen. 
Roots fibrous. Stems very often without joints, three-cornered, or 
taper. Leaves with their sheaths entire. The lowermost bracteas often 
sterile. 
Description, &c. —The Sweet Cypress or English Galingale ( Cyperus longus , Lin.), and the Cotton Grass 
(Eriophorum angustifolium, Lin.), are the most ornamental plants belonging to this order. The latter, indeed, 
is very beautiful, and it produces its brilliant white tufts of cotton-like bristles in such abundance as to give the 
turfy bogs on which it is found the appearance of being covered with snow in the midst of summer. The other 
genera belonging to this order are the Beak Rush ( Rhgncospora ), the Bog Rush ( Schcenus ), the Spike Rush 
(Heliocharis ), the Club Rushes including the Bull Rush ( Scirpus ), the Twig Rush ( Cladium ), and the Sedges 
(Car ex). 
CHAPTER LXXXII. 
THE GRASS FAMILY. (Gramine^j, Juss.) 
Character of the Order. —Flowers usually hermaphrodite, some¬ 
times monoecious or polygamous; consisting of imbricated bracteae, of 
which the exterior are called glumes, those inclosing the stamens pale*, 
and the innermost at the base of the ovarium, scales. Glumes usually 
two, alternate ; sometimes single, most commonly unequal. Pale* 
two, alternate; the lower or exterior simple, without heel; the upper 
or interior composed of two united by one margin, usually with two 
heels. Scales two, sometimes wanting, collateral, alternate with the 
pale*, and opposite the lower of them, either distinct or united. Sta¬ 
mens hypogynous, one, two, three, four, or six, or more ; anthers ver¬ 
satile. Ovarium single; styles two, very rarely one or three ; stigmas 
feathery or hairy. Pericarpium usually undistinguishable from the 
seed, membranous. Albumen farinaceous ; embryo lying on one side 
of the albumen at the base, lenticular, with a broad cotyledon, and a 
developed plumula, and occasionally, but very rarely, with a second 
cotyledon on the outside of the plumula, and alternate with the usual 
cotyledon. Roots fibrous or bulbous. Stems cylindrical, fistular, 
closed at the joints, covered with a coat of silex. Leaves alternate, 
with a split sheath. Flowers in spikes, racemes or panicles. 
Description, &c. —There are fifty-six genera of Grasses, but only a few can be called ornamental ; and of 
these the most beautiful are the Feather Grass (Stipa pennata, Lin.), and the Quaking Grass ( Briza media, 
Lin.) The others are scarcely distinguishable from each other by the common eye, though each is curiously and 
wonderfully formed. 
THE END. 
