. The classification of flowering plants. Plants. GRAMINEAE 227 upon each other. A number (one to six) of the lower glumes are sterile, generally the lowest pair; the fertile glumes bear in their axils a very short branch, the lowest leaf of which (the "pale) is opposite the fertile glume, and therefore has its back to the axis. The pale is generally membranous and binerved (probably as a result of the pressure of the main axis), and represents the bracteole below the flower. The flower consists, in the great majority of cases, of (1) a perianth, represented by two members reduced to minu
. The classification of flowering plants. Plants. GRAMINEAE 227 upon each other. A number (one to six) of the lower glumes are sterile, generally the lowest pair; the fertile glumes bear in their axils a very short branch, the lowest leaf of which (the "pale) is opposite the fertile glume, and therefore has its back to the axis. The pale is generally membranous and binerved (probably as a result of the pressure of the main axis), and represents the bracteole below the flower. The flower consists, in the great majority of cases, of (1) a perianth, represented by two members reduced to minute, generally succulent scales, the lodicules, which stand closely side by side in the front of the flower ; (2) a simple whorl of three stamens, the odd one anterior; (3) a central ovary, bearing a pair of lateral styles (figs. 100,101). There are numerous variations which are of value for the systematic division of the order. There may be one flower only in a spikelet, as in Agrostis and allied genera and others (figs. 102,103), or two to many, as in Arrhenatherum (fig. 107), Festuca and Bromus, or Bamboo (fig. 113, C). The rachilla may or may not be continued be- yond the flower. Thus in many one-flowered spikelets the flower is terminal, that is, bar- ren glumes, fertile glume and pale are on one and the same axis, as in Anthoxanthum (figs. 102,103, F, G), Agrostis, Gala- magrostis, Oryza (fig. 103, A, B) and the Andropogoneae. On the other hand, in Gastridium, Apera, Deyeuxia (fig. 103, H) and others the solitary flower is obviously lateral, the rachilla being produced beyond it. One or more of the upper glumes of a many-flowered spikelet may be barren or more or less aborted. The lower barren glumes are rarely absent, as in the monotypic genus Coleanthus (fig. 103, C); Leersia, a widely distributed swamp-grass, is distinguished from Oryza (Rice) 15—2. Fig. 102. Diagram of a spikelet oi Anthoxanthiun dissected ( x about 8), and shewing—from below upwards— two outer a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectplants, bookyear1904
