The book of grasses; an illustrated guide to the common grasses, and the most common of the rushes and sedges

Front matter

SALT-MARSH COCKSPUR GRASS (Echinochloa Walieri)

moire Gb OO K Or GRASSES

AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE COMMON GRASSES, .AND THE MOST COMMON OF THE RUSHES AND SEDGES

Preface

THE little that has been written about our common grasses has dealt chiefly with their economic value, and has been published for the agriculturist, to whom that value is paramount. Or, it has, on the other hand, been too technical to be of service to the casual student of our wild flowers who has had comparatively little aid, aside from scientific and agricultural works, in recognizing the different species of this vast family.

In preparing the following pages I have intended that the descriptions, though accurate, should not obscure the beauty of the grasses with a mass of technical terms, but should be so simple that the wayfaring man who enjoys the verdure of our waysides might become more intimately acquainted with the most common plants.

An important aid in recognizing the grasses will be found in the illustrations, which, made from the living plants, present not only the most noticeable characteristics of growth, but also delineations of the parts of the flowers.

The technical descriptions, which follow the general descriptions, are the results of careful observations and measurements of many specimens.

The descriptions include the common grasses and the most common of the rushes and sedges found from Canada southward to Virginia, and from the Atlantic coast westward to the Mississippi River. The greater number of species given are found throughout the United States.

I wish to acknowledge indebtedness to the following valuable works: “The True Grasses,’ by Eduard Hackle; “American Grasses,” by Dr. Lamson Scribner; ‘“‘Grasses of North America for Farmers and Students,” by William J. Beal; and ‘Descriptive Catalogue of Grasses of the United States,’ by Dr. Geo. Vasey.

Mary Evans FRANCIS.

LIST OF CONTENTS

Preface.

The Most Important Family of thie Senceble Sngdon Stem, Leaf, and Flower : ‘ ‘ : A Calendar of the Common Grasses

Grasses Arranged According to Locations

Illustrated Descriptions of the ree

Rushes :

Index to Latin Names : Q

PAGE Vil

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Coloured Plates

Salt-marsh Cockspur Grass (Echinochloa Walteri) . Frontispiece

PAGE

Foxtail Grasses (Setaria) . . eel Indian Rice, or Wild Rice (Zz ae aquatica a ae z palustris) 87 Red-top (Agrostis alba) . . . 117 Snake Grass (Eragrostis paeatsehiay By eS see ait gcon Un Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata) . . . . .... . 189 Fringed Brome-grass (Bromus ciliatus) . . . . . . . 223 VOTHE-OTASS ND: QHESSTINUS) Oo ee el Na lee) ce eR Brome-grass (B. incanus) . Res A ato See inh se rear

Slender Wild Rye (Elymus Seay © Bae suger ten oe) ae WVOOR Gatass | CSCHPYUS (EV PCTINUS) Fe BS Great Bulrush (S. validus) . . . Bess ae Oar aha PT Yellow Nut-grass (Cyperus oa Bs er teg rita Se een Bristle-spiked Cyperus (C. strigosus) ©. 2 eg te 263 Chair-maker’s Rush (Scirpus americanus) . . . . . . 281

Por cente (Carex oulpingidea) ose ee i ee pe, 305 Sen ICAm ANC NOWELL alls at teria an eso anes fn ned IS SOS EP stay Aa) ay ence ge cr ace hu ar he ae Panicles .)... BaP eT rants Pratik! ire, SE Grass flowers oad fein ids MAC anc tea Mince tS cr Sn SE GamaGrass (1 ri psacum sdaciyloidés)) 5 ee 50 Beard-grass (Andropogon scoparius) . . Betsy V8.2) SED Broom Sedge on sandy soil (A. na. Draka eee” Gan Forked beard-orass (As fUreaius) ne ke Indian: Grass: (Sorghasivum nutans)’ sk we ie we 56 Large Crab-grass (Digitaria sanguinalis) . . ... . 57

Pare Crap Pi asa Mi) SRIEUINOIS) (cof. 6) 0. ah 8 Pete a oO Slender Paspalum (Paspalum setaceum) . ..... . 60 Old Witch-grass (Panicum capillare) . ...... 62

Xi

Old Witch-grass (P. capillare)

Bitter Panic-grass (P. amarum) .

Cockspur Grass (Echinochloa drgeeltih Salt-marsh Cockspur Grass (E. Walter?) Scribner’s Panic-grass (Panicum Scribnerianum) Hispid Panic-grass (P. clandestinum)

Cockspur Grass (Echinochloa crusgallt)

Long Panic-grass (Panicum agrostoides)

The Deserted Garden .

Yellow Foxtail (Setaria glauca)

Green Foxtail (S. viridis)

Bur-grass (Cenchrus carolinianus)

Indian Rice (Zizania palustris)

Indian Rice by the border of a stream

Rice Cut-grass (Leersia oryzoides)

Rice Cut-grass (L. oryzoides)

White-grass (L. virginica) d

Reed Canary-grass (Phalaris Dn cen

Reed Canary-grass (P. arundinacea) : Sweet Vernal-grass (Anthoxanthum Adora a Vanilla Grass (Hierochloé odorata) : White-grained Mountain Rice ees asperiflia Black Oat-grass (Stipa avenacea)

Slender Aristida (Aristida gracilis)

Purplish Aristida (4. purpurascens)

Sea-beach Aristida (A. tuberculosa) Beale. Meadow Muhlenbergia (Mublenbergia mexicana) Long-awned Hair-grass (M. capillaris) Long-awned Wood-grass (Brachyelytrum een: Long-awned Wood-grass (B. erectum) : Timothy (Pbhleum pratense) : Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus ran) ; Sheathed Rush-grass (Sporobolus saginaeflorus) Gauze-grass (S. uniflorus) .

Red-top (Agrostis alba)

Rough Hair-grass (4. hyemalis)

Blue-joint Grass (Calamagrostis Pn).

Nuttall’s Reed-grass (C. cinnoides)

Blue-joint Grass (C. canadensis) in Poneick NarsHe Blue-joint Grass (C. canadensis)

Xii

List of Illustrations

Marram Grass (Ammopbila arenaria) :

Marram Grass (A. arenaria) in drifting sad

Wood Reed-grass (Cinna arundinacea)

Silvery Hair-grass (Aira caryopbyllea)

Velvet Grass (Holcus lanatus) eae

Marsh Oats (Sphenopholis palustris) .

Meadow Sphenopholis (S. pallens) .

Wavy Hair-grass (Deschampsia flexuosa)

Wavy Hair-grass (D. Se

Cultivated Oats 3

Cultivated Wheat

Cultivated Rye . i

Meadow Oat-grass (Arrhenatherum. poe.

Wild Oat-grass (Danthonia spicata) . .

Creek Sedge in bloom on the marsh (Spartina A Bees var. pilosa) .

Blossoming oie: a Creek Sedge (S. aa var ae

Salt Reed-grass by the marsh (S. cynosuroides) . 3

Salt Reed-grass (S. cynosuroides) ie

Fox-grass, rank in growth (S. patens)

Fox-grass covering the marsh (S. patens)

Fox-grass growing through sand (S. pee

Fox-grass (S. patens) eames ,

Fox-grass (S. patens)

Creek Sedge (S. glabra, var. een

_ Bermuda Grass (Cynodon Dactylon)

Tall Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula)

Wire-grass (Eleusine indica) .

Salt-meadow Leptochloa ee eae.

Salt-meadow Leptochloa (L. fascicularis)

Reed (Phragmites communis)

Sand-grass (Triplasis purpurea)

Sand-grass (T. purpurea)

Tufted Eragrostis (Eragrostis pilosa).

Strong-scented Eragrostis (E. megastachya)

Purple Eragrostis (E. pectinacea) :

Narrow Melic-grass (Melica mutica) .

Purple Oat (M. striata) ;

Broad-leaved Spike-grass (Wao: Iaifoba) -

Marsh Spike-grass (Distichlis spicata)

Xill

Marsh Spike-grass (D. spicata) .

Lady’s Hair (Briza media)

Field of grasses

Orchard Grass (Dacivis ca atas) Crested Dog’s-tail (Cynosurus cristatus) Low Spear-grass (Poa annua) Kentucky Blue-grass (P. pratensis) . False Red-top (P. triflora)

Canada Blue-grass (P. compressa) .

False Red-top (P. triflora)

Wood Spear-grass (P. sylvestris).

Densely flowered Manna-grass (Glyceria obese) ?

Rattlesnake Grass (G. canadensis) Nerved Manna-grass (G. nervata) Tall Manna-grass (G. grandis)

Pale Manna-grass (G. pallida) Nerved Manna-grass (G. nervata) .

Floating Manna-grass (G. septentrionalis) Goose-grass (Puccinellia maritima) Goose-grass (P. maritima)

Spreading Spear-grass (P. Witenes Slender Fescue (Festuca octoflora) .

Red Fescue (F. rubra)

Meadow Fescue (F. elatior) .

Fringed Brome-grass (Bromus cillahes) Downy Brome-grass (B. tectorum) Chess (B. secalinus)

Ray-grass (Lolium perenne)

Ray-grass (L. perenne) : Couch-grass (Agropyron PVN Couch-grass (A. repens)

Squirrel-tail Grass (Hordeum Placita) Cultivated Barley

Terrell-grass (Elymus ay Nodding Wild Rye (E. canadensis) Terrell-grass (EF. virginicus) Bottle-brush Grass (Hystrix ‘batula) Bottle-brush Grass (H. patula) Cyperus (Cyperus bystricinus)

XIV

207°

List of Illustrations

Cyperus (C. diandrus) . .

Bristle-spiked Cyperus (C. reer

Slender Cyperus (C. filiculmis) :

Pond Sedge (Dulichium arundinaceum) .

Slender Spike-rush (Eleocharis tenuis)

Large Spike-rush (E. palustris)

Slender Spike-rush (E. tenuis)

Spike-rush (E. obtusa) :

Matted Spike-rush (EF. pieeiediays

Sand-mat (Stenophyllus capillaris) .

Slender Fimbristylis (Fimbristylis Mahlin se :

Great Bulrush (Scirpus validus) ;

Salt-marsh Bulrush (S. robustus)

Wool-grass (S. cyperinus)

Meadow Bulrush (S. atrovirens)

Wool-grass and Bulrushes growing in eh

Cayuga Marsh . .

River Bulrush (S. aslo

Meadow Bulrush (S. atrovirens)

Salt-marsh Bulrush( S. robustus)

Salt-marsh Bulrush (S. robustus) ;

Salt-marsh Bulrush (S. robustus) by the eiee oF the notch

Virginian Cotton-grass (EF. virginicum) stags

White Beaked-rush (Rynchospora alba)

Slender Cotton-grass (Eriophorum gracile)

Virginian Cotton-grass (F. virginicum)

Clustered Beaked-rush (R. glomerata)

Low Nut-rush (Scleria verticillata) i

Scales, seeds, and perigynia of eek belonging to the ne CAO 03 Ren rad, Wc caweten gee wage 6a

Tufted Sedge (cae siiviol ;

Pennsylvania Sedge (C. pennsylvanica)

Bladder Sedge, (C. intumescens)

Hop Sedge (C. lupulina) .

Fringed Sedge (C. crinita) 5

Little Prickly Sedge (C. ei peaidasy

Slender Sedge (C. gracillima) :

Sedges (C. lurida, C. cristata, C. pistes)!

Hop Sedge (C. lurida, var. gracilis)

Hop Sedge (C. Pseudo-Cyperus)

XV

Hop Sedge (C. retrosa) ‘ Hop Sedge (C. lupuliformis) Fringed Sedge (C. crinita) Fox Sedge (C. vulpinoidea) Fescue Sedge (C. festucacea) Yard Rush (Juncus tenuis)

Small-headed Rush (/. brachycebealad) :

Bog Rush (J. effusus) . ; Sharp-fruited Rush (J. paints, Grass-leaved Rush (J. marginatus) Yard Rush (J. tenuis)

Toad Rush (J. bufonius) . ‘ Sharp-fruited Rush (J. icihainaliss Bog Rush (J. effusus) . ; : Knotted Rush (J. nodosus) .

Jointed Rush (J. articulatus)

Black Grass (J. Geradz)

Common Wood-rush (Luzula nas)

XVi

325 327 330 330 330 331

332 333 332 337 337

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FRoM spring until late autumn grasses bloom by every wayside, and in field and meadow form the green carpet of the earth. Widely distributed throughout all countries, and abundant even in far-away prehistoric days, they still remain the most important family of the vegetable kingdom, and — of all common plants the most common —the least commonly known. Yet from the moment when the first violet lifts its blossom to the sunlight until in autumn the witchhazel’s delicate flowers are seen above fastfalling leaves, there is never a day when grasses are not in bloom, and never a week in summer when a score of different species may not be gathered.

In richness and variety of colouring, above their undertone of green, the blossoms and wind-blown anthers of the grasses. rival in beauty the flowers that the wayfaring man collects. The grace of swaying stem and drooping leaf, the delicacy of tiny flowers tinged in rose and purple, and the infinite variety shown in form and colouring are lost upon those who are intent on seeking flowers that the forests make rare. Grasses there are, stout and higher than one’s head, and grasses so slender that their dying stems among wayside weeds are like threads of gold; grasses whose panicles of bloom are more than half a yard in length, and of a colour which only a midsummer sun can burn into August fields; grasses so stiff that winter’s snow leaves them unbroken, and grasses so tiny that their highest flower is raised but a few inches from the soil.

Nearly one thousand species are found in the United States, nor is the study of these plants so difficult as it is thought to be. When accuracy in determining the individual species is desired, a small microscope and a few needles for dissecting the blossoms are all that is necessary. Even without these aids an intimate acquaintance with the grasses may be gained by observing only their most obvious characteristics of growth, and the various forms of flowering heads. Notice closely the grasses in a low meadow of early summer: the dense growth of green, hastily characterized as

“ srass,” may contain many different species of this vast family, species which at a second glance are seen to have each their own distinguishing features.

Like charity the study of grasses may begin at home, and, like charity also, this most fascinating of nature studies may be carried far afield, for the grasses, most numerous of all flowering plants, we have always withus. Tree-like in the tropics the Bamboos, largest of the grass family, lift their blossoms one hundred feet and more toward the sky; in cold countries moss-like grasses cringe and cling to the frozen ground, and through the temperate regions of the globe grasses grow in luxuriance of form and colouring and supply a background of green against which the world of trees and rivers, of brooks and ledges, is placed on colours ever changing, and ever perfect. Nature is continually busy reclaiming the unsightly places abandoned by man, covering with a garment of green the hillsides torn by rain, and carpeting with her “matted miracles of grass” the humble waysides.

The traditional spirit of the seasons is symbolized by outdoor colouring: cool, pale tints of early spring, rose-colour of June, warm tones of August fields, and a glory of purple and gold when the summer is past and the harvest ending. In all this continuity of change, which keeps the face of Nature so new in its world-old familiarity, the grasses bear their part, and as the violet and wild geranium of spring give place to midsummer hardhack, which in turn is pushed aside by goldenrod and asters, so the passing months bring fresh grasses into bloom and mark the calendar of the year by the flowering of these common plants.

It still is true, however, that

“The world misprizes the too-freely offered And rates the earth and sky but carelessly.”

The dandelion is less honoured than the arbutus, yet even the dandelion receives greater honour than do the early grasses, which aid in changing earth’s wintry shroud to living green. Grasses yield us the earliest intimations of spring, as a faint flush of green, in harmony with the soft colours of April woods, tinges the brown hillsides before snows have ceased. The first grasses are more delicately coloured than are those of midsummer when the sun burns red and purple into the tiny flowers. The green spikelets of many spring grasses depend for colour upon their lightly poised anthers of lavender and gold. Sweet Vernal-grass, Orchard Grass, and June Grass, so characteristic of spring, are succeeded by spreading panicles of Hair-grass, bayonet-like spikes of Timothy, and the richly coloured Red-top whose blossoms burn with midsummer’s warmth. September has still new grasses to offer, and in this month the Beard-grasses are conspicuous, as their stiff stems at last attain a growth that will enable them to withstand snow and frost. In many localities from fifty to one hundred different grasses may be gathered, and, although, unlike the lilies, they do not flaunt their colours garishly, yet in rose and lavender, in purple and an infinite scale of green they rest and charm the eye with their beauty from April to October, when frosts bring to them new hues of brown and yellow in which they clothe the earth until green blades again push through spring turf.

Our waysides are the accepted gardens of many plants which, having followed the path of mankind through the New World, take the highways of civilization for their own, and find abundant means for transportation as seed is fastened on passers-by, or carried by the wind along smooth pathways. Few are the grasses that cannot be found in these wayside gardens as the roads wind through fertile country, from uplands to rich meadows, or pass sandy shores, where in a variety of soils the different grasses bloom and add a mass of verdure to the border of the way. Throughout the season these common gardens of the wayside hold a constantly changing procession of grasses; a procession which begins with Low Spear-grass and Sweet Vernal-grass in April, and ends in October with the Dropseed-grasses and the Beard-grasses, although even in winter the species that remain standing may still be recognized.

Rarer flowers must be sought in deep woods and in hidden places in the swamps, but the cosmopolitan grasses are fitted to take up the struggle for existence wherever the seed chances to fall. Dean Herbert rightly says that “plants do not grow where they like best but where other plants will let them.” By waysides we may see this struggle in its intensity as a dozen species strive for the same plot of ground and grow in tangles that include low cinquefoil and tall briars. The strife is always most intense between individuals of the same species, and here the grasses grow in profusion, occupying each inch of space, pushing out into deserted country roads, and spreading far and wide by means as interesting as ever the more noted flowering plants employ.

Bur-grass, with its thorny seed-burs, catches on passing objects and thus secures free portage to new fields; Terrell-grass by thick, corky scales floats its seed upon the streams near which it grows; Beach Grass defies the sand to bury it and is found at the tops of the highest sand-dunes, with whose rise it has kept pace, the long roots of the grass penetrating to the base of the dune; and Couch-grass, sending sharp-pointed rootstocks rapidly through the soil, is a veritable “land-grabber.”

Where the purslane and poppy produce a multitude of seeds from every flower, each blossom of the grass ripens but one, yet so richly stored is this with nutriment, and frequently so well protected against germination under unfavourable conditions, that the one seed may be worth many of those less perfectly equipped, since, in the process of evolution, diminution in the number of seeds is accompanied by an increase in the effectiveness of those that remain.

The twisted awns of certain grasses —e. g., Sweet Vernal-grass and Wild Oat — show one of the most interesting mechanisms seen in the vegetable world. These awns, or bristle-like appendages of the grass flower, are extremely sensitive to atmospheric changes, and by their peculiar structure aid in burying the seed beneath the surface of the soil. In Sweet Vernal-grass the scale, to which the ripened seed adheres, bears a brown awn, bent and twisted near its middle, and beset with minute, upwardpointing hairs on its basal part. Such awns are strongly hygroscopic and during cold or dry weather remain tightly twisted, thus holding the seed where it chances to be. Under the influence of moisture the awn untwists and by its rotation drives the fallen seed slowly but surely beneath the soil. Although dry weather may follow, causing the awn to become twisted again, the upwardpointing hairs catch on particles of earth or grass and, holding the seed down, prevent it from being drawn up. Thus it lies ready for the next shower when the awn pushes the seed farther into the earth. This peculiarity of structure is easily observed without the aid of the microscope. If a few of the ripened seeds be laid upon the moistened palm of the hand they will immediately begin to move, as if alive, and the rotating of the awn may be plainly seen.

Interesting experiments have been made whereby it has been seen that in sand, alternately wet and dried, the awns of certain grasses will bury the seed several inches beneath the surface.

Each locality shows characteristic grasses, and as in a short walk we pass from low meadows to dry hillsides we find new species to excite fresh interest. On sea beaches we look for the long, gray-green leaves of Marram Grass, or Beach Grass, for spreading clumps of Sea-beach Panic-grass, for the dark, wiry stems of Fox-grass, and for rigid-leaved grasses of hot sands. Salt marshes show dense jungles of reed-like grasses, Creek Sedge, Salt Reed-grass, and the tall Reed. Dry hillsides are covered in spring by Wild Oat-grass and Wavy Hair-grass, where later Purple Finger-grass, Sheathed Rush-grass, and stiff Beard-grasses will bloom. In dry fields we look for the low growth of the smaller Panic-grasses, for the slender, one-sided spikes of Field Paspalum, and for wide-spreading panicles of Purple Eragrostis. Borders of woodlands offer Poverty Grass, Black Oat-grass, and Muhlenbergias, while in deep woods we search for shade-loving grasses, the tall, slender Bottle-brush Grass, the lower Mountain Rice, and the Nodding Fescue. Marshy meadows are full of interest to the student of grasses: Reed Canary-grass with broad, blue-green leaves borders narrow brooks, and nearby the Blue-joint Grass, slender and stiff, rises bearing narrow, deeply coloured panicles; graceful Manna Grasses fill the marshes of early summer, and later the rough leaves and stems of Rice Cut-grass form tangled masses in low grounds. By river-borders grows the great Gama Grass whose leaves are so broad as to resemble those of our cultivated corn, and in wet soil, also, is found the tall Indian Rice on which the reed-bird feeds. A country dooryard of an acre may show more than a dozen different grasses, while in the garden near half a score of other species invade the cultivated land as weeds. A large collection of grasses, preserved either as herbarium specimens or in the more artistic impression prints made upon photographic paper, may be gathered in a short time, and differences perhaps little noticed by the casual observer will seem marked indeed to the student who at the close of a summer’s study will deem it as unpardonable to mistake one of our common grasses for another as to mistake an elm for an oak.

Corn, wheat, oats, the day of the first cultivation of these cereal grains long antedates history, and how seldom is it realized

- that they are grasses. Vergil and Columella wrote long ago of the care of meadows and fields. Indeed the word cereal stands as an article of faith in the goddess Ceres, who searched with torches for the grain carried off by winter frost, and on finding the seed raised it to its flower once more. Bertha was the Ceres of German mythology, and winds and rains affecting crops were believed to be under her control. Corn-spirits there were which were symbolized under the forms of wolves and goat-legged creatures, similar to classic satyrs. To the older peasantry of Germany and Russia these corn-spirits still haunt and protect the fields which show the “Grass-wolf’”’ or ‘‘ Corn-wolf’’ to be abroad when the wind, as it passes, bends the grass and the ripening grain. The last sheaf of rye is occasionally left afield as shelter for the “ Roggenwolf,” or “ Rye-wolf,” and it is not long since the Iceland farmer guarded the grass around his fields lest the mischievous elves, hiding among the grasses, and ever waiting to harm him, should invade his cultivated land.

In old herbals the word grass, gres, gyrs meant any green plant of small size, and though we have restricted the meaning of the word it still is carelessly applied to a multitude of sedges and rushes which in manner of growth and form of flower differ markedly from the true grasses. To the casual observer the grasses are but “ grass,” and to few is their diversity, their beauty, and their value apparent. We are blind to the infinite variety shown by Nature in these common plants, of which we often know scarcely more than do the cattle that feed upon them; yet on no other family of flowering plants does the beauty of the green earth and its adaptation as a home for man so largely depend.

UTILITY OF GRASSES aes

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THE MOST IMPORTANT FAMILY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM

“And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”’— Gulliver’s Travels.

CaN one imagine the world grassless — a barren waste? The shifting soil, exposed to the elemental workers, wind and water, could offer no sure abiding place for man, since, lacking a tenacious network of grass roots firmly binding the soil, the road of to-day might be obliterated to-morrow, and the loftiest building gradually buried beneath wind-blown sand.

As soil-binders the grasses performed a leading part in the important task of rendering the globe habitable to the human race, and still sending their roots far and wide through the surface of the ground the grasses form a turf which holds in check the destructive forces of wind and rain, and gives secure anchorage not only to the lower growth of plants but also to trees and shrubs.

Grasses were abundantly developed in prehistoric days, as numerous remains of grass-like leaves attest, and since the earliest tribes chipped rude implements for cultivating the soil, or for their use in war, the grasses have exceeded in importance to mankind any other family of the vegetable kingdom.

The green herbage of meadow and pasture is the chief food of domesticated animals, and in this country the value of hay alone exceeds that of any other crop except corn, which, be it remembered, is itself a grass. Even the salt marshes yield their hay, and in New England pastures, where rocks seem as numerous as grass blades, sheep crop the wiry grasses of dry hillsides.

A noted grass-garden was owned in Woburn a century ago by the Duke of Bedford, and in this garden George Sinclair carried on valuable researches of which he wrote in his “Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis.” ‘Tirelessly were the experiments made, in cultiva-

Il ting the grasses, _in drying them, in dissolving their soluble parts, in evaporating the solution, and finally in submitting the residuum to chemical analysis.

Grass stems contain a large amount of silica, and in such seed as that of the species known as “ Job’s Tears” the hardness due to a silica deposit nearly equals that of agate. Minute particles of silica in the outer cell walls serve in keeping grass stems firm and erect, and if we carefully burn the vegetable matter from one of these stems a perfect skeleton of the structure is left. It is said that wheat straw, without the addition of other material, may be melted into colourless glass, and that barley melts into glass of topaz yellow.

The varied form and texture of the grasses adapt them to many uses, and even the common grasses of our northeastern states have been made into ropes, mats, paper, baskets, and many fineplaited articles. Fragrant fans of dark-coloured fibres are made in India from the aromatic rootstocks of a grass, and the entire plant is woven into screens which, when dampened and placed in a current of air, perfume the breeze. Lemon Grass and Ginger Grass, natives of tropical Asia, yield oils strongly scented, as their names imply, and the rootstock of a grass in South America is sometimes used as a substitute for soap.

A few grasses have been used medicinally, and have been cultivated for medicinal purposes. But it is as food for man, and for the domesticated animals on which he is most dependent, that the grasses have attained their highest importance, and it is on them largely that the great human family is fed to-day.

The world has seemed to draw a line between the grasses of the fields and those plants that produce well-filled heads of cereals, and has ceased to regard the latter as grasses. Yet the useful grains — corn, wheat, rye, barley, rice, and oats — belong to one family, and are but grasses that have been brought by man to a superior degree of excellence. Rice and wheat have been cultivated from time immemorial, and although a century ago wheat . was wheat, yet to-day new strains have been developed which grow where in older days the grain could not have been raised.

Indian corn originated in tropical America, and is one of the few cereals whose native condition is known. It had attained a wide distribution when this country was discovered, and the grain must have been in use in very ancient times. Early explorers

Utility of Grasses found the Indians cultivating corn with primitive implements — hoes made of a sharpened stone or the shoulder blade of a moose — and even then the seeds were described as “somewhat bigger than small peason,” while later the Pilgrims could boast the cultivation of varieties of which “the graine be big.” Botanically, corn is one of the most interesting of the grasses and is very unlike those found in daily walks through the country. The stamens of corn are in ornamental spikes which terminate the stems, while below, on spikes which are borne in the axils of the leaves, are the fertile flowers. These are densely crowded on a thickened rachis, commonly known as the corn-cob, and are covered with husks which are the sheaths of abortive leaves and which have the leafblades more or less developed. The flowering scales and palets are found in the chaff covering the cob, and the silken “tassels” at the summit of each ear are elongated pistils. Aerial roots, thrown from the lower nodes, serve as prop-roots, supporting the stem, and imitating in a small way the growth of a few other tropical plants.

Sugar Cane is also a grass that has been brought from the wilderness and has been made to pay the toll of usefulness which man would fain exact of all vegetation.

In warmer countries the great Bamboos, which are but grasses of a larger growth, are utilized as shelter, clothing, and food. Of these giant grasses houses are built which may be entirely furnished with articles made of Bamboo, and the household, wearing jackets and hats made of the same material, may gather tender shoots of the plant for use as a vegetable. A small section of the stem forms a cup, and a larger section a pail; paper and ropes are manufactured from the plant; umbrellas and exquisite boxes are made of the split internodes, and intricate appliances for spinning are fashioned entirely of Bamboo. And these are but a few of the uses that the several species of these grasses serve. Indeed, a complete list of articles made of Bamboo would be a catalogue far too long for insertion in these pages.

Impenetrable “canebreaks” of the South are formed of two grasses similar to the Bamboos, though smaller in growth. The stout, jointed stems of the more southern species (the Large Cane), are used for fishing rods and are made into canes and pipes. As thatching the stems form a strong and serviceable shelter, and when split are woven into baskets and mats. The Small Cane

(Arundinaria técta) grows as far north as Maryland, and by streams and river banks forms evergreen thickets from three to twelve feet in height. A reed of southern Europe and Palestine belongs to a closely related genus, and from this grass the heroes of Homer are said to have made their arrows and with it to have thatched the tent of Achilles. Pan-pipes, such as Orpheus might have used in charming the Dryads from their leafy shelters, were also made from the smooth stems of this reed.