The Vegetable World: Being a History of Plants, with Their Botanical Descriptions and Peculiar Properties

| their roots, generally fibrous, their round, hollow, and prominently

Jointed stems, their slender, parallel ribbed leaves with slit sheaths; roots, angular and or sedges, by their creeping the Cyperacea, joints; the Juncacee by their round solid stems, and inconspicuous Eriocaulacee, fruits; the capsular many-seeded stems, and tapering by their angular stem and capitate inflorescence; the Typhacee, by their erect tapering stem and densile spiked inflorescence; and in the arums or Aracee, by their foliage dilated in A. maculatum, with scented leaves and succulent fruit in A. corus. important family of grasses, or Grasses.—The Tue Gramrnace®, to which the Oat-grass belongs, supplies us also with Wheat, Rice, ye, Barley, Maize, and the Sugar-cane; and constitute, besides, grass of our meadows and our hill-sides. The Oat is an annual, the lower stem of which forms a short rhizome, from which by brown in- interrupted these are stems emanate: ‘econdary solid, whilst the parts inter- flatednodes or joints, which become

vening between the knots are hollow tubes. From these knots spring the leaves. Their petioles form a split sheath on one side, which embraces the stem for some distance before spreading out into a very long slender leaf, traversed by parallel and simple veins, converging towards the summit. At the point where the leaf separates from the sheath, we find a small, whitish, membranous band, which appears to be a continuation of the inner lining of the petiole beyond the origin of ia the lamina of the leaf. In the 4 accompanying engraving. (Fig. 350), of an annual grass, Poa annua, 8 is the sheathing petiole, called ligula (shoe-latchet), 1 a the lamina, ” the tumid node, * at which the leaf originates.

The infloresence of the Oat is a loose, but ample panicle, displaying branches on all sides. If we examine more closely these little fructifying pen-dants, which from the delicacy of their peduncles { '4) oscillate freely to the breeze which skims over the |\ surface of the field of oats, two pointed scales will | /| be observed on the outside, almost equal in size, | |/ | but one of which is inserted a little lower than | | f i the other; this constitutes the envelope, protector, | 4 | or glume of three distichous flowers, forming a little ear or spikelet (Fig. 352). The lower wa. flower is fully developed, the second is smaller, and the ot rudimentary and sterile. If we examine the lower flower, - is composed essentially of three stamens and a pistil. The — ments of the stamens are delicate, and the anthers, which are in the shape of an X, are loosely attached by the back. The er is composed of a shaggy, hairy ovarum, which surmounts ae feathered styles. There is only one cell in the interior, a ing an unique and anatropal ovule. These essential organs tected by a system of two scales, the external or lowest “ at, bears upon its back a caducous and rigid filament, slightly bel ae while the internal one, which is much smaller, is supplied ‘gn two lateral veins. This system constitutesthe glume. ot a

GRAMINACEOUS PLANTS.

to this we find on the outside of the exterior stamen two small collateral and fleshy bodies, which are designated a paléole. When the ovule has been subjected to the fertilising influence of the pollen-tubes, it is transformed into a seed, which presents this peculiarity, that it is blended firmly with the fruit by its integument in such a manner as to constitute what botanists call cariopsis—a term used when the pericarp of an indehiscent seed-vessel is membranous, and ad- | heres firmly to the integument, as in Fig. 351, which represents | a cariopsis of Buckwheat (Polygonum Fagopyrum), which is often confounded with the seed itself. The composed of a farina- Ceous albumen. On the outside and beneath, a small distinct — body is perceptible, sunk in the surface, and scarcely projecting from it. This is the embryo which, Supported upon the albumen by it, forms a cushion-like enlargement by the lateral expansion of the stalks, Wuear (Triticum sativum), Ngnally from Persia, has trifloral spikelets; their sides oppe- ' we ie te d disposed, as greater part of this is | A

Fig. 352.—The cultivated Out, 289

Ricx (Oryza satioa), originally from India, presents a panicle of rigid and erect branches, with unifloral spikelets, the flower presenting six stamens. is to say, it presents both the monsxceots—that Maze (Zea) is ee organs upon the same stalk. The flowers with stamens are ed in a terminal panicle. The flowers with pistils have their spsulats close together, the lateral arm enclosed in a large spatha, which is nothing but the sheathing petiole of a leaf deprived of its limb. The stigma of these pistils are thread-like and very long. The ensemble of these stigma is like a handful of long filaments, hung carelessly towards the earth like a tuft of hair. The names of Turkish, Spanish, and Guinea wheat and Indian corn, which have been given to Maize, are quite fallacious, for it is indigenous to the tropics of America. With the exception of Wheat and Rice, Maize cultivated of the universally is the most useful as well as the most grasses. Almost all Asiatics, Africans, and Americans use it as The Sugar Cane, another plant of the their chief nourishment. tilles, furnishes us with sugar for domestic purposes.

The Graminaces, in its 4,000 species, comprehends our most valuable plants for pasture, and all those which yield corn; their structure is the most simple of the higher forms of vegetation. Their stems constitute so many protecting sheaths to the rapidly growing shoots, and are clothed with alternate leaves; the inflorescence comprehends a small number of stamens and a single seed a enclosed in a thin pericarp; the floral leaves, or glumes, ac D 2 sent in immense varieties in the different tribes, and form, wi 4 the number of stamens, texture, and sexual relations, very! de 3 tinctive characters by which the several genera have been formeft into tribes or families. Endlicher divides the 234 jetted s which the order consisted when he wrote (which is now increa” to 291), into thirteen tribes, as follows:—: 2, 3-flowered, lower) 16 genera, containini’ier a:

I. OnyzEa. Psoret.ngonplea, and neuter, the pate — _ some lonly fertil Jspec incindiog 21 geneM® | sme Containing 1,2, 3-) _ hermaphrodite, Spikelets Lan ant equal, pales hard- |Zen Ge Maizeve ‘glumes {rowers wats cee ning,

38 gen Spikelets ae en ten in- height “ tromfiaie uuichtreerise arborescen;| bortive a i umes ITI. PANICE. ellie‘3iofty e height to the S ceepeume ceonoyeeattg waite palewc India, wi \ cariopsis quill. goose

The vast family of Endogens is universally diffused. “ Agrostis _ algeda was found by Phipps on Spitzbergen,” says Babington. “ On the mountains of the south of Europe Poa disticha and other grasses _4scend almost to the snow line; and this is also the case on the Andes with P. dactyloides, Dryeuxia rigida, and Festuca Dasy-atha.” Their different dimensions are equally striking. Some Species of Bambusa are 50 to 60 feet high; in these islands we are better acquainted with them as forming the compact grassy turf of our meadows, lawns, and hayfields. Tt would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of this great y of plants. Most of them contain abundance of wholesome fecula, and comparatively few of them are objectionable, although for human food. Those the cereal grasses only are cultivated Teckoned deleterious may bebriefly enumerated. Loliumtemulentum, * common weed in many parts of Britain, is said to be injurious to are emetic and purgative.aes Bromus ek ee and catharticus u2

Bromus mollis is also unwholesome; and Festuca quadradentata is said to be poisonous. Molinia varia is also injurious to cattle. The most esteemed pasture grasses are Lolium perenne, Phleum and Festuca pratensis, Cynosurus cristatus, with several species of Poa and Dwarf Festuca, to which the fragrance of the sweet Vernal Grass (Anoxanthum) add their fine aroma.

The Cyperace® (Sedges) are Grass-like herbs, of solid angular stems, sometimes terminating at the base in corms or tubers, with narrow, tapering leaves wrapping round the stem, but without the slitting sheath. The flowers are imbricated solitary bracts, without calyx, the lowermost of which are often empty, very rarely enclosing other opposite bracts at right angles with the first, called glomm the seed has its embry,There is no diaphragm at the articulations; lying in the base of the albumen, within which its cotyledonous extremity is enclosed. The Sedges are found in ditches, marshes, and running streams, heaths and forests, on the sands of the seashore, and on the tops of mountains. In Lapland, according to Humboldt, they are equal to grasses in number; but from the temperate zone to the equator the equatorial regions: As we approachthe proportion decreases. the character of the order changes—Carex Scirpus and Schernms give place to the Cyperacee and other analogous genera. On the banks of the Nile, and in many parts of Arabia, the Papyris antiquorum grows, of which boats, paper, and ropes are made; am P. corymbasis is equally useful in India, where it is manufactur into matting for rooms; while Cyperus textilis makes @ kind of | rope much used in the East. the |

Of the remaining orders constituting glumaceous plants bi. Desvavx1acem consist of genera of small tuft-like mee a tinguished from the Sedges by their ovaries, which are varia e:: number and distinct from each other, ranged round @ were a axis, as in the Ranunculus. They are insignificant amgicicie a6 South Sea Islands and Australia. anh