Rachis

“ Elongation of the secondary flower-stalks.—In the previous section the effect of elongation of the main rachis has been considered. A corresponding deviation occurs in [Pg 436] the peduncles or pedicels, and sometimes alters the general character of the inflorescence very considerably, converting a spike into a raceme, a raceme into a corymb, a capitulum into an umbel, and so forth. ”

“ Spikelets are unilateral, sessile, crowded, biseriate on a slender rachis with four to six glumes and 1 to 3-flowered; the rachilla is produced and disarticulating above the empty glumes. The first two glumes are unequal, narrow, keeled, membranous, 1-nerved, persistent, acute, mucronate and the second glume awned shortly. Floral glumes narrow or broad, acute, obtuse or minutely 2-toothed and awned, paleate; sterile glumes are small, without palea. There are two lodicules and anthers are rather small. Grain is narrow and free. ”

“ Inside them the axis or stalk (rachis) is continued for a short distance only and on its sides are hinged two86 other pairs of more or less boat-shaped scales, smaller and more delicate than the glumes, and known as the pales (paleæ) , while a third pair of still smaller pales is fixed to the end of the axis. In each case one smaller and more delicate inner palea is hinged just inside its more obvious outer palea. In the closed condition of the spikelet each of the three pairs of pales is shut together, and pressed close to the axis, and the pair of glumes shut in the whole. ”

“ The inflorescence is a strict spike-like panicle, 6 to 12 inches long by 1/4 to 1/3 inch broad, cylindric, interrupted below; the rachis terete, stout, channelled.
The spikelets are glabrous, green, herbaceous, densely packed in small fascicles, ovoid lanceolate, 1/6 to 1/5 inch long; many spikelets are imperfect.
Fig. 100.—Panicum interruptum.
1 and 2. Front and back view of a spikelet; 3. first glume; 4. second glume; 5. third glume; 6. palea of third glume; 7 and 8. the fourth glume and its palea; 9. ovary, lodicules and stamens. ”

“ Rachitis again is often complicated with softening of the bones, disease of the limbs, arrested development, etc., but it must not be forgotten that although the irregularities in ossification and development of the skeleton are the symptoms most striking to the eye, they do not stand alone, and that from the point of view of development all the tissues, including the muscles, are more or less affected and that most of the physiological functions such as digestion and the secretion of urine are deranged. ”

“ I smell flesh and blood! Where can they be?'—'Stuff and nonsense!' cried his wife. 'You smell flesh and blood, indeed! Why, you have just been killing and eating a hundred thousand people. I should wonder if you didn't still smell flesh and blood!' They went on disputing the subject, until at last the Rakshas said, 'Well, never mind, I don't know how it is, but I'm very thirsty; let's come and drink some water.' So both the Rakshas and his wife went to a well which was close to the house, and began letting down jars into it, and drawing up the water, and drinking it. ”

“ Rachitis usually attacks children somewhere between nine months and two [268] years of age, and produces a variety of well marked symptoms; such as large head and belly, protrusion of the breast-bone, flattening of the ribs, emaciation of the limbs, and various deformities of the bones. The patient may recover from the disease, but the deformity of the bones often remains, and therefore no female should become pregnant, who has had rickets, till the shape and dimensions of her pelvis are known, or it may cost her life. ”

“ But never mind—it doesn't matter."
"Oh, but it does!" exclaimed Racky. "I should like to do you a favor since you were so kind as to invite me into this cave out of the rain. And I believe I know how I can scratch your back."
"How can you?" asked the wild pig.
"With the sharp ends of my rockers," answered the chair. "Oh, do not be afraid," he went on with a laugh. "They are not sharp enough to cut you. But if you will lie down behind me, with your back toward the ends of my rockers, I will sway to and fro. The rocker ends will move up and down and scratch your back nicely." ”

“ Now the Rakshas were very terrible creatures indeed, and in the minds of many people in India are so still, for they are believed in even now. Their natural form, so the stories say, is that of huge, unshapely giants, like clouds, with hair and beard of the colour of the red lightning; but they can take any form they please, to deceive those whom they wish to devour, for their great delight, like that of the ogres, is to kill all they meet, and to eat the flesh of those whom they kill. ”

“ The cold, white flakes swirled around his legs, and fell on his stiff, wooden arms, chilling him all the way into his glue, by which he was held together.
"If the snow gets into my cracks, it will melt, and be just like rain," thought Racky as he swayed along. "Then I shall fall apart! Or I shall get the rheumatism, and creak worse, than when fat Grandma sits on me! ”

“ Figure 213 shows the appearance during life of a patient with the highest grade of rachitis, and it can be easily understood what a barrier to natural child-birth it would produce. In rachitis epiphyseal swellings are seen at the wrists and ankle-joints, and in superior cases at the ends of the phalanges of the fingers and toes. When the shaft of a long bone is affected, not only deformity, but even fracture may occur. Under these circumstances the humerus and femur appear to be the bones most likely to break ”

“ The rachillus is described as prolonged through the utricle by the side of the stigmas, bearing on its side a bract, then a secondary utricle, from the axil of which sprung a short stem surmounted by an ovary. Wigand, 'Flora,' 1856, mentions a similar change in Carex glauca. In this instance the base of the female inflorescence bore lateral spikes, which projected from the utricles; some of these adventitious spikes were female, others [Pg 144] female below and male above, others, again, wholly male.
Fig. 65.—Flower of Nymphæa Lotus, var., showing axillary floral prolification. ”

“ The conditions of life, on the contrary, have an unquestionable influence, and if rachitis is so frequent in young animals living near towns, for example, it is undoubtedly due to that want of air, light and liberty, which first affects the mother’s health and later that of her offspring. ”

“ But the more we recognize an anatomical cause of the chronic disorder, the more we can appreciate the influence upon the child of previous rachitis in the mother, and are justified in emphasizing the necessity on the part of the woman to be healthy when she gets married, and to remain so while she is pregnant. After the child is born the most frequent cause of rachitis is found within the diet or the digestion of the patient. ”

“ So he rocked and swayed to and fro, straining at his legs and reaching out with his arms—oh, yes! the rocking chair had arms, of course—and at last he was through the hole in the fence.
"I am free at last! Free!" exclaimed Racky in his own kind of a voice—a sort of squeak, peculiar to some rocking chairs. "I am free! No more shall I be sat on by fat, old ladies, though I really love Grandma Marden. ”

“ I am going to run away myself!"
"You are?" cried Racky. "When, where and with whom?"
"I am going to run away now—with you!" barked the dog.
"Oh, good!" exclaimed the rocking chair. "I thought I would have to go alone, by myself. It will be much more jolly to have company. We can have many adventures, and talk about them. First," he went on with a little laugh, "when I heard that noise, and saw the weeds moving, I thought an adventure was coming out. But it was only you, Thump."
"Yes, I have been roaming around in these weeds looking for a bone I buried last week," said Thump. ”

“ Osteomalacia is a disease of the bones in adult life, occurring most frequently in puerperal women, but also seen in women not in the puerperal state, and in men. It is characterized by a progressive softening of the bone-substance, from a gradual absorption of the lime salts, and gives rise to considerable deformity, and occasionally to spontaneous fracture.
Rachitis or rickets is not a disease of adult life, but of infancy and childhood, and never occurs after the age of puberty. It seldom begins before six months or after three years. ”

“ So it must be warm there."
"I wish I could go in the little house," sighed Racky.
"Why don't you?" asked the tree. "I am glad to have you here, under me, but I cannot help sifting snow on you when the wind blows. And it is too breezy for one who is catching cold. The little old woman is kind. I am sure she will let you come in her house."
"Then I am going there, thank you," said Racky, who was now shivering so that he almost shook Grandma's glasses out from between the cushions. "How can I find the little house?" ”

“ In the male bird the trachea at the distance of about two inches above the furcula, takes an immense convolution, forming a complicated knot; the form of the turnings is not always the same, nor is their extent; I have seen one much more complicated than in the specimen dissected by Mr. Eyton, [112] and some less so. The volutions are connected by a mesentery. At the point where the bronchi divaricate, the trachea dilates into a large oval box. In the female the trachea is quite simple, having no trace of the convolution, nor of the bronchial box. ”

“ The genuineness of these cases has been questioned by Cadiot and Leclainche, by Virchow and by others, but in the present uncertainty as to the dividing lines between rarefaction, rachitis and other diseases, they deserve notice in this connection.
In dogs the lesions are mostly in the young and are largely rachitic, yet the enormous swelling of the facial bones, and especially of the superior maxillary in the comparatively mature animal suggests osteo-malacia. As in rachitis there are usually impaired digestion, unthriftiness, slow, stiff movements and lack of life and vigor. ”

“ In Miss Stokes's collection of Indian Fairy Tales we have variants corresponding more closely to Punchkin. In "Brave Hírálálbásá," a rakshas (the common name for demon, or ogre, but sometimes used as a euphemism for protection) is induced by female wiles, not unfamiliar to the daughters of Eve, to reveal the secret of his life. "Sixteen miles away from this place is a tree; round the tree are tigers and bears, and scorpions and snakes; on the top of the tree is a very great flat snake; on his head is a little cage; in that cage is a bird, and my soul is in that bird." ”

“ By and by home came the Rakshas, and began to sniff about crying, “A man is here!” “Oh, no,” said Sonahrí Rání; and she gave him some dinner, and when they were in bed she asked him, “Papa, where is your soul?” “I’ll tell you another day,” said the Rakshas. The next day, when he had gone out to find food, Sonahrí Rání took the little fly, Hírálál, and restored him to his human shape, and gave him some food and sent him on his way. When he reached the river, the water-snake took him over to the other side, and he journeyed on till he came to his father’s kingdom. ”

“ Within the ventral furrow at the proximal end is the rachilla already referred to. The skin or husk of a barleycorn consists of two paleae, one adhering to the dorsal side (the palea inferior) and the other to the ventral side (the palea superior) ”

“ If we examine the tracheal gills of the smaller dragon-fly (Agrion) , or the May-flies, or Sialidæ, or Perlidæ, or Phryganeidæ, we see that they are developed in a very arbitrary way, either at the end of the abdomen, or on the sternum, or from the pleurum; moreover, in structure they invariably have but a single trachea, from which minute twigs branch out; [30] in the wings there are five or six main tracheæ, which give rise to the veins. Thus, in themselves, irrespective of their position, they are not the homologues of the gills. ”

“ And the Rakshas answered, “Very well, I will come.” And then the Rájá took the pretended Rání home with him and married her. He gave her a room to live in. Every night at twelve o’clock the Rakshas got up and devoured an elephant, or a horse, or some other animal. The Rájá said, “What can become of my elephants and horses? Every day either an elephant or a horse disappears. Who can take them away?” The Rakshas-Rání said to him, “Your seven Ránís are Rakshases, and every night at twelve o’clock they devour a horse, or an elephant, or some other creature.” ”

“ King's son. But if this is the case, how do I know that you are not a Rakshasi yourself? Perhaps you mean to swallow me up by throwing me off my guard.
Princess. I'll mention one fact which proves that those three creatures are Rakshasis, while I am not. Rakshasis, you know, eat food a hundred times larger in quantity than men or women. What the Rakshasis eat at table along with us is not sufficient to appease their hunger. They therefore go out at night to distant lands in search of men or cattle, as there are none in this city. ”

“ Now very soon after she left the Rakshas’ house, the young Rakshas came home, and he was very fierce and terrible to look at. At once his mother began to scold at him.
“Why are you so late?” she cried. “A young maiden has been here, a fine and dainty morsel, all pink and white, and as tender as a bird, and you might have had her for your supper if only you had returned earlier, in time to catch her.”
When the Rakshas heard this, his eyes grew red as fire, and he gnashed his teeth together with rage. ”