by Nathaniel Lord Britton & Addison Brown

“ One or more of the upper scales, except sometimes the terminal ones, contains in the axil a flower, which is usually enclosed by a bract-like awnless organ called the palet, placed opposite the scale and with its back toward the axis (rachilla) of the spikelet, generally 2-keeled; sometimes the palet is present without the flower, and vice versa. Flowers perfect, pistillate, or staminate, sometimes monoecious or dioecious, subtended by 1-3 minute hyaline scales called the lodicules. ”

“ Those yielding food-grains are called cereals. The species are more numerous in tropical countries, while the number of individuals is much greater in temperate regions, often forming extended areas of turf. ”