Monocotyledons with Glumaceous Flowers. 
131 
Natural Order 
GRAMINEiE. Tab. 101, 102. 
Diagnosis. — Herbs, rarely shrubby or arborescent (as in Bamboo). 
Leaves radical or alternate, with split sheaths. Flowers usually perfect, 
sheathed by scaly 2-rowed bracts, of which the innermost is usually 2-nerved. 
Embryo at the base of, but obliquely outside, a copious albumen. 
Distribution. —An enormous Natural Order, abounding from the Equator to the limits ot 
vegetation ; in temperate regions forming the principal proportion of the herbaceous covering of 
the soil. 
Number of British Genera, 44; Species, 110-114. 
INFLORESCENCE usually panicled, the spikelets pedicellate, panicles lax and spreading or denser and spiciform ; 
in Tribe Hordeinece and a few others closely spicate and spikelets sessile. 
SPIKELETS consisting of distichous, imbricate, chaffy scales (glumes), and one, few or many flowers (florets) ; 
flowers perfect, or the upper ( Poacece ) or lower ( Paniccceece) imperfect or rudimentary : very rarely dioecious. 
HYPOGYNOUS Scales ( lodicules ) minute, 2, 3, or none. 
Stamens hypogynous, usually 3, 2 in Vernal Grass ( Anthoxanthum ), 6 in Rice ( Oryza ). 
Ovary free, 1 -celled, with 1 ovule; stigmas feathery, 2 or rarely 1 as in Mat Grass ( Nardus ) and Indian Corn 
(Zed). 
