Poaceae with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals; some, such as sword grass, are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath. Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one or
Life at the South; or, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as It Is Life at the South; or, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as It Is Life at the South; or, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" As It Is (also known by its shorter title of Uncle Tom's Cabin As It Is) is an 1852 plantation fiction novel written by William L.G. Smith. "Uncle Tom's Cabin As It Is" is an example of the anti-Tom or pro-slavery plantation literature genre, novels that were produced following the publication of the bestselling "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe. Critics felt Stowe's work inaccurately depicted or otherwise exaggerated the evils of slaveholding. Smith's novel follows the general pattern