. The classification of flowering plants. Plants. GRAMINEAE 237 Tribe 1. Maydeae. 7 genera, tropical to subtropical. Zea Mays (Maize) (figs. 110, 113, F), much cultivated in the warmer parts of the earth, probably a native of tropical America, but not known in the wild state. A tall annual, with large broad leaves and a terminal panicle of numerous male spikes; female spikes in the leaf-axils subtended by numerous large bracts and grown together into a solid axis bearing double rows of flowers, the whole forming the coh\ the long slender styles project in a tuft from the top of the young cob.
. The classification of flowering plants. Plants. GRAMINEAE 237 Tribe 1. Maydeae. 7 genera, tropical to subtropical. Zea Mays (Maize) (figs. 110, 113, F), much cultivated in the warmer parts of the earth, probably a native of tropical America, but not known in the wild state. A tall annual, with large broad leaves and a terminal panicle of numerous male spikes; female spikes in the leaf-axils subtended by numerous large bracts and grown together into a solid axis bearing double rows of flowers, the whole forming the coh\ the long slender styles project in a tuft from the top of the young cob. The hard ripe fruits are surrounded only at the base by the thin glumes. In Coix (tropical Asia) the sheath of the bract subtending the female spikelet forms a hard, ivory-like, egg-shaj)ed capsule around it (hence the name Job's tears), the small male inflorescence protruding from the orifice of the capsule. Tribe 2. Andropogoneae. 25 genera, mainly tropical. Spikelets arranged in spike- like racemes, generally in pairs consisting of a sessile and stalked spikelet at each joint of the rachis (as in Maize), Many (Jwrfrojoo^o/I, Elionu- i'^is, Themeda, &c.) are savanna- grasses inhabiting dry plains in various parts of the tropics. Saccharum offi-cinarum, Sugar- cane, is a tall grass with narrow leaves and a long ter- minal panicle; the small spike- lets are surrounded by an in- volucre of long silky hairs. Cul- tivated throughout the tropics, perhaps a native of further India, but not now known wild. Sorghum., the tropical African Durra, is an important cereal. Species of Miscanthus and En- aathus, tall reed-like grasses with large silky hairy panicles, are grown for ornament. Tribe 3. Paniceae. About 25 genera, tropical to subtropical, a few temperate : one or two British. A second flower (male, very rarely hermaphrodite) is often present in the axil of the third glume, below the fertile flower. Paspalum, a large tropical genus most abundant in America, especially on
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectplants, bookyear1904
