The grasses chiefly herbaceous but some woody plants including cereals

Usage examples of gramineae.

But as this occurred in the four species examined by us, belonging to such distinct families as the Gramineae, Cruciferae, and Chenopodeae, it is probably of common occurrence.

Leguminosae, Malvaceae, Cucurbitaceae and Gramineae, we may infer that this character is common to the roots of most seedling plants.

The sheathlike cotyledons of the Gramineae circumnutate, that is, move to all sides, as plainly as do the hypocotyls or epicotyls of any dicotyledonous plants.

We shall hereafter meet with the same kind of movement in the joints of certain Gramineae, and it is probably common to many plants while circumnutating.

There is only one other analogous case known to us, namely, that of certain Gramineae, which fold inwards the sides of their narrow leaves, when these are exposed to the sun and to a dry atmosphere, as described by DuvalJouve.

We may, also, suspect that the extreme sensitiveness to light of the upper part of the sheathlike cotyledons of the Gramineae, and their power of transmitting its effects to the lower part, are specialised arrangements for finding the shortest path to the light.

In some cases, as with the hypocotyls of Brassica, the leaves of Dionaea and the joints of the Gramineae, the circumnutating movement when viewed under the microscope is seen to consist of innumerable small oscillations.

In the Gramineae the summit of the straight, sheathlike cotyledon is developed into a hard sharp crest, which evidently serves for breaking through the earth.

Of all the permitted diabolism with which the Enemy is suffered to torment man and his poor relations, the animals, this corkscrew member of the Gramineae, Anthistiria infernalis, is the deadliest.