. Flowers and their pedigrees. to their new condition, though that conditionis itself decidedly lower than the one from which theystarted. The common rush and its immediate con-geners resemble the lilies from which they spring inhaving several seeds in each of the three cells whichcompose their pistil. But there is an interestinggroup of small grass-like plants, known as wood-rushes, which combine all the technical characteristicsof the true rushes with a general character extremelylike that of the grasses. They have long, thin, grass-like blades in the place of leaves ; and what is still 154
. Flowers and their pedigrees. to their new condition, though that conditionis itself decidedly lower than the one from which theystarted. The common rush and its immediate con-geners resemble the lilies from which they spring inhaving several seeds in each of the three cells whichcompose their pistil. But there is an interestinggroup of small grass-like plants, known as wood-rushes, which combine all the technical characteristicsof the true rushes with a general character extremelylike that of the grasses. They have long, thin, grass-like blades in the place of leaves ; and what is still 154 Flowers and their Pedigrees. more important, as indicating an approach to theessentially one-seeded grass tribe, they have onlythree seeds in the flower, one to each cell of thecapsule. These seeds are comparatively large, andare richly stored with food-stuffs for the supply of theyoung plantlet. One such richly supplied embryois worth many little unsupported grains, since itstands a much better chance than they do of surviv-. Fig. 35.—Single flower of Woodrush. ing in the struggle for existence. The wood-rushesmay thus be regarded as some of the earliest plantsamong the great trinary class to adopt those tacticsof storing gluten, starch, and other food-stuffs alongwith the embryo, which have given the cereals theiracknowledged superiority as producers of human are closely connected with the rushes, on theone hand, by sundry intermediate species whichpossess thin leaves instead of cylindrical pithy blades ; The Origin of Wheat. 155 and they lead on to the grasses, on the other, byreason of their very grass like foliage, and their re-duced number of large, well-furnished, starchy seeds. In another particular, the rush family supplies uswith a useful hint in tracing out the pedigree of thegrasses and cereals. Their flowers are for the mostpart crowded together in large tufts or heads, eachcontaining a considerable number of minute separateblossoms. Even among the true
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectplantse, bookyear1884
