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Excerpt from The Grasses of Maine: Designed for the Use of the Students of the Maine State College, and the Farmers of the State
The arrangement of the leaves on the stem is of great importance in distinguishing the grasses from some of the related families of plants. In the grasses there is one leaf from each node or joint, the first from the lowest joint of the stem the second from the next joint above, but on the opposite side of the stem; the third leaf from the third joint and on the opposite side from the last leaf, but directly over the first, and so on. The leaf consists of the sheath (petiole), the ligule and the blade (lamina). The sheath is the part surround ing the stem, and which, starting up from a node, extends nearly up to the next node, where it joins the long, narrow blade of the leaf. Although the sheath surrounds the stem, the edges merely touch or overlap, but are never grown together except in exceedingly rare cases. At the place where the sheath ends and the blade begins, there is a thin and more or less transparent membrane called the ligule. This is an upward continuation of the sheath above its junction with the blade of the leaf, and, as it varies in size and form, it is much used in the classification of the grasses. The blade is long and narrow, with a stout vein through the middle called the midrib, and smaller veins on each side parallel to the midrib.
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