GRASSES ,' a See also:

• GROUP

The O. Eng. grasian, formed from gres, gives " to graze," of See also:

• CATTLE (Norman Fr. catel, from Late Lat. capitale, wealth or property, a word applied in the feudal system to movable property and particularly to live stock, and surviving in its wider meaning as " chattel " or " chattle ")

In some bamboos they are very numerous from the lower nodes of the erect culms, and pass downwards to the See also:

• SOIL

Isolated tufts or tussocks are also characteristic of See also:

• STEPPE (from the Russ. stepi, a waste)

In grasses of temperate climates branching is rare at the upper nodes of the culm, but it is characteristic of the bamboos and many tropical grasses. The branches are strictly distichous. In many bamboos they are long and spreading or drooping and copiously ramified, in others they are reduced to hooked spines. One genus (Dinochloa, a native of the See also:

• MALAY

The sheaths are much dilated in Alopecurus vaginatus and in a species of Potamochloa, in the latter, an See also:

• EAST
• EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

The thick See also:

• PRO

It may, however, be spikelet of Agrostis. of Aira. b, Barren glumes; f, flowering glumes. (Both enlarged.) considered as settled that the whole of. the bodies known as glumes and paleae, and distichously arranged externally to the flower, form no part of the floral envelopes, but are of the nature of bracts. These are arranged so as to form spikelets (locustae), and each spikelet may contain one, as in Agrostis (fig. 3) two, as in Aira (fig. 4) three, or a great number of flowers, as in Briza (fig. 5) Triticum (fig. 6); in some species of Eragrostis there are nearly 6o. The flowers are, as a rule, placed laterally on the See also:

• AXIS (Lat. for " axle ")

13, r) is See also:

• PECULIAR

The midrib in a large proportion of genera extends into an appendage termed the awn (fig. 4), and the lateral veins more rarely extend beyond the glume as sharp points (e.g. Pappophorum). The form of the flowering glume is very various, this organ being plastic and extensively modified in different genera. It frequently extends downwards a little on the rachilla, forming with the latter a swollen callus, which is separated from the See also:

• FREE

The flower with its palea is thus sessile in the axil of a floriferous glume, and in a few grasses (Leersia (fig. 9), Coleanthus, Nardus) the spikelet consists of nothing more, but usually (even in uniflorous spikelets) other glumes are present. Of these the two placed distichously opposite each other at the base of the spikelet never See also:

• BEAR
• BEAR, BLACK
• BEAR, BROWN
• BEAR, GRIZZLY
• BEAR, ISABELLINE
• BEAR, WHITE

The axis of the spikelet is frequently jointed and breaks up into articulations above each flower. Tufts or See also:

• BORDERS, THE

The remarkable ovoid involucre of Coix, which be-comes of stony hardness, white and polished (then known as " See also:

• JOB

13,) that is, within the flowering glume. They are generally considered to represent the inner whorl of the See also:

• ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

On this view the grass-flower has no perianth. The function of the lodicules is the separation of the pale and glume to allow the protrusion of stamens and stigmas; they effect this by swelling and thus exerting pressure on the base of these two structures. Where, as in Anthoxanthum, there are no lodicules, pale and glume do not become laterally separated, and the stamens and stigmas protrude only at the apex of the floret (fig. 7). Grass-flowers are usually hermaphrodite, but there are very many exceptions. Thus it is common to find one or more, imperfect (usually male) flowers in the same spikelet with bisexual ones, and their relative position is important in classification. Holcus and Arrhenatherum are examples in See also:

• ENGLISH

Amphicarpum is remarkable in having cleistogamic flowers See also:

• BORNE, KARL LUDWIG (1786–1837)

Gynoecium.—The See also:

• PISTIL

organs supplied. f, Outer row o f a, Axis. stamens. b, Flowering glume. g, Inner row. c, Palea. h, Pistil. Fro. 14.-Pistils of Grasses (much enlarged). r, Alopecurus; 2. Bromus; 3, Arrhenatherum; 4, Glyceria; 5, Melica; 6, Mibora; 7, Nardus. whilst the remaining members of the perianth are in a rudimentary condition. But each or any of the usually missing are to be found normally in different genera, or as occasional developments. See also:

• POLLINATION

Of those with only bisexual flowers, many are strongly protogynous (the stigmas protruding before the anthers are ripe), such as Alopecurus and Anthoxanthum (fig. 7), but generally the anthers protrude first and See also:

• DISCHARGE (adapted from the O. Fr. discharge, modern decharge, from a med. Lat. discargare, to unload, dis- and earn care, to load, cf. " charge ")

Sometimes the pericarp is membranous, sometimes hard, forming a See also:

• NUT
• NUT (0. Eng. knutu, cf. Dutch noot, Ger. Nuss; allied with Gael. cno; it is not of the same form as Lat. nux)

In some grasses there is a small scale-like appendage opposite the scutellum, the epiblast. There is some difference of See also:

• OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

The growth of the See also:

• PRIMARY

In Tragus the glumes bear numerous short hooked bristles. The fleshy berries of some Bambuseae favour distribution by animals. The awn is also of use in burying the fruit in the soil. Thus in Stipa, species of Avena, Heteropogon and others the base of the glume forms a sharp point which will easily penetrate the ground; above the point are short stiff upwardly pointing hairs which oppose its withdrawal. The long awn, which is bent and closely twisted below the See also:

• BEND

The only family closely allied is Cyperaceae, and the points of difference between the two may be here brought together. The best distinctions are found in the position of the embryo in relation to the endosperm—lateral in grasses, basal in Cyperaceae —and in the See also:

• POSSESSION
• POSSESSION (Lat. possessio, possidere, to possess)

Neither of these great divisions will well accommodate certain genera allied to Phalaris, for which Brown proposed tentatively a third group (since named Phalarideae); this, or at least the greater part of it, is placed by See also:

• BENTHAM, GEORGE (1800-1884)
• BENTHAM, JEREMY (1748-1832)

Maydeae. 2. Spikelets bisexual, or male and bisexual, each male See also:

• STANDING

Qryzeae. B. Spikelets one- to indefinite-flowered; in the one-flowered the rachilla frequently produced beyond the flower; rachilla generally jointed above the empty glumes, which remain after the fruiting glumes have fallen. When more than one-flowered, distinct inter-nodes are developed between the flowers. a. Culm herbaceous, annual; leaf-blade sessile, and not jointed to the sheath. a Spikelets upon distinct pedicels and arranged in panicles or racemes. I. Spikelets one-flowered. i. Empty glumes 4. 5.

Phalarideae. ii. Empty glumes 2. 6. Agrostideae.II. Spikelets more than one-flowered. i. Fertile glumes generally shorter than the empty glumes, usually with a bent awn on the back. 7. Aveneae. ii. Fertile glumes generally longer than the empty, unawned or with a straight, terminal awn.

9. Festuceae. Spikelets crowded in two close rows, forming a one-sided spike or raceme with a continuous (not jointed) rachis. 8. Chlorideae. y Spikelets in two opposite rows forming an equal-sided spike. to. Hordeae. b. Culm woody, at any See also:

• RATE

Maydeae (7 genera in the warmer parts of the earth). Zea Mays (maize, q.v., or Indian See also:

• CORN (a common Teutonic word; cf. Lat. granum, seed, grain)
• CORN (fromm Lat. corms, horn)

Imperata, another ally, is a widespread tropical genus; one species I. arundinacea is the principal grass of the alang-alang See also:

• FIELDS, JAMES THOMAS (1817-1881)

Paniceae (about 25 genera, tropical to subtropical; a few temperate), a second flower, generally male, rarely hermaphrodite, is often present below the fertile flower. Paspalum, is a large tropical genus, most abundant in America, especially on the See also:

• PAMPAS (Span. La Pampa, from a Quichua word signifying a level open space or terrace)

Pennisetum typhoideum is widely cultivated as a grain in tropical Africa. Spini- fex, a dioecious grass, is widespread on the coasts of Australia and eastern Asia, forming an important sand-binder. The female heads are spinose with long pungent bracts, fail entire when ripe and are carried away by wind or sea, becoming finally anchored in the sand and falling to pieces. Tribe 4. Oryzeae (16 genera, mainly tropical and subtropical). The spikelets are sometimes unisexual, and there are often six stamens. Leersia is a genus of swamp grasses, one of which L. oryzoides occurs in the north temperate zone of both old and new worlds, and is a rare grass in See also:

• SURREY
• SURREY, EARLDOM OF
• SURREY, HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF (1518?-1547)

Phalarideae (6 genera, three of which are South See also:

• AFRICAN

Sporobolus, a large genus in the warmer parts of both hemispheres, but chiefly America, derives its name from the fact that the seed is ultimately expelled from the fruit. Agrostis is a large world-wide genus, but especially developed in the north temperate zone, where it includes important meadow-grasses. Calamagrostis and Deyeuxia are tall, often reed-like grasses, occurring throughout the temperate and arctic zones and upon high mountains in the tropics. Ammophila arundinacea (or Psamma arenaria) (Marram grass) with its long creeping stems forms a useful sand-binder on the coasts of Europe, North Africa and the See also:

• ATLANTIC

Chlorideae (about 30 genera, chiefly in warm countries). The only British representative is Cynodon Dactylon (dog's tooth, Bermuda grass) found on sandy shores in the south-See also:

• WEST
• WEST, BENJAMIN (1738-1820)
• WEST, NICHOLAS (1461-1533)

19.—Phalarideae. Spike- let of Hierochloe. about % nat. size. 1, one spikelet. are very troublesome. Eragrostis, one of the larger genera of the order, is widely distributed in the warmer parts of the earth ; many species are grown for ornament and E. abyssinica is an important food-plant in See also:

• ABYSSINIA (officially ETHIOPIA)

20) is the very common weed in paths and waste places; P. pratensis and P. trivialis are also common grasses of meadows, banks and pastures, the former is the " See also:

• JUNE

21), and Hordeum sativum, barley (q.v.). H. murinum, wild barley, is a common grass in waste places. Elymus arenarius (lyme grass) occurs on sandy sea-shores in FIG. 21 the north temperate zone and is a useful sand-binder. Spike of Wheat Tribe 11. Bambuseae. Contains 23 genera, mainly (Triticum satitropical. See BAMBOO. vum). About a universally diffused of all flowering plants. There is no See also:

• DISTRICT

Fossil Grasses.—While numerous remains of grass-like leaves are a See also:

• PROOF (in M. Eng. preove, proeve, preve, &°c., from O. Fr . prueve, proeve, &c., mod. preuve, Late. Lat. proba, probate, to prove, to test the goodness of anything, probus, good)

The distribution of the tropical tribe Bambuseae is interesting. The species are about equally divided between the Indo-Malayan region and tropical America, only one species being common to both. The tribe is very poorly represented in tropical Africa; one species Oxytenanthera abyssinica has a wide range, and three monotypic genera are endemic in western tropical Africa. None is recorded for Australia, though species may perhaps occur on the northern See also:

• COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

Of specially remarkable species Lygeum is found on the sea-sand of the eastern See also:

• HALF