HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIF. 



COLLECTING AND PRESEEVIN&. 



No. XTI— GRASSES, &c. 

 By James Buckman, F.L.S. 



RASSES form such 

 a distinct group of 

 plants, and their 

 study is so often 

 undertaken for spe- 

 cial purposes, that 

 aifew remarks up- 

 on their collection 

 and preservation can hardly be 

 considered as out of place in 

 Science-Gossip. 



Delicately as grasses are 

 formed, yet it cannot be said 

 that their tissues are so liable 

 to injury, or their colours so 

 evanescent, as are those of the 

 flowering plants which the 

 botanist ordinarily delights in. 

 ISTor indeed are the Grasses so 

 succulent as' many other herbs. 

 In this respect they may be 

 said to hold a place between 

 ferns and those plants which 

 usually are called flowers. 



Again, in the dried state their organs are generally 

 so well preserved as to present all that a botanist 

 can wish for, for identification as well as arrange- 

 ment; and the student of Grasses ever finds his col- 

 lection to contain beauties not only in point of 

 rarity, but as regards delicacy of structure and grace 

 of outline. 



Viewing them in this light alone, we have often 

 been astonished that so many students of plants 

 pay so little attention to them, and this feeling is 

 enhanced when the great value of the Grasses is 

 considered. 



If then a few simple directions for preserving 



these plants shall have the effect of winning a convert 



to these views, we shall be delighted ; and to this 



end we shall make our descriptions as simple as our 



No. 98. 



process has ever been easy and simple, and yet 

 complete. 



In collecting grasses, as in other tribes of plants, 

 it will be necessary that our specimens should be 

 chosen with the view to exhibit every feature of 

 interest. With this view, then, it will be best in the 

 general way to obtain as much of the plant as 

 possible, so that it may be necessary to get them up 

 by the roots. Still, in many species the root is not of 

 much importance; but there are a few which possess 

 rhizomata, or underground stems ; such as the Triti- 

 cumrepens, Foapratensis, P. compressa, Holcusmollis, 

 Agrostu stolonifera, and others. These should always 

 exhibit these parts ; and as such examples are usually 

 agrarian, it is easier to mark, down desirable speci- 

 mens and seek a fork' at the neighbouring farm- 

 buildings wherewith to completely get them out, 

 than to carry any substitute in a smaller and less 

 perfect implement. 



Having made these remarks, we will suppose 

 that we are now about to sally forth in search of 

 Grasses ; in which case we make the following pre- 

 parations. 



As we do not file our copy of the Times, we make 

 use of it as collecting-paper as follows : — Each side 

 of the paper is cut in two, or, as a Cockney would say, 

 " in half." Each half is then folded into a double 

 collecting-sheet, and as many of these are taken as 

 are likely to be useful. In each of these papers is 

 put a small slip of writing-paper, on which to note 

 the locality and any other noteworthy fact connected 

 with a specimen when put in the paper. These 

 papers, separately folded, are placed with the open 

 ends inwards in a convenient portfolio, and the col- 

 lector is ready to take the field. 



Of course there will be those who will advocate 

 Bentall's drying-paper, blotting-paper, and so on, and 

 we would not have it supposed that we despise these 

 luxuries ; but as we have found the plan advocated 

 always to answer the purpose for Grasses, we have 



