Filices.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 427 
Some, as Eragrostis cynosuroides, are employed for rope-making, as Stipa tenacissima, 
the true Esparto (Spartum) of the Spaniards, as well as Lygewm Spartum are in Europe. 
Some of the species of Saccharum are employed by the natives for making their 
reed pens, and others for their arrows. The Bamboo, from its multiplied uses, may 
rival almost any other produce of the vegetable kingdom, though, from not yielding 
any portion fitted for food, it is of less importance than some others ; the young parts, 
however, being soft and tasteless, are employed for making both into pickles and 
preserves. The singular substance secreted within its hollow stem, and near the joints, 
has long been known in Indian medicine, being the buns-lochun of the Hindoos, tabasheer 
of the Arabs ; kshir or chir, means juice, or extract, in Sanscrit. It has been thought 
by some to be the Saccharum of the Ancients, but without sufficient foundation. 
The grasses, though humble in appearance, and inconspicuous in inflorescence, are, 
as we have seen, among the most important of plants; they are among the first to grow 
upon new or barren soils, and thus moderating the extremes of heat and cold, serve to 
modify climate, at the same time that they prevent land, which has long been in use 
from becoming sterile, in consequence of the yearly additions which they make to the 
soil, of organized matter from their own decay. Their universal diffusion, and great 
similarity in nature, has rendered easy the colonization of distant lands by man, as well 
as the transport of herbivorous cattle from one part of the world to another. No plants, 
eheveloré; are more worthy of continued and extended experiments in India, as few 
things can more effectually benefit society, or promote the best interests of the country, 
than increasing the productiveness of a Cereal grain, or improving the culture of a 
_ Pasture-grass, except it be introducing new kinds of each, suited to the different _ 
parts of the wide-spread territories, and diversified climates, of that empire, knowing, 
as expressed in the terse language of Linneus, that Gramina, folia pecoribus et jumentis 
leta pascua, semina minora avibus, majora hominibus esculenta sunt. 
ACOTYLEDONE or FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 
o | 
197. FILICES. 
Ferns being allied, in some points of structure, to Phenogamic Plants, and being 
most conspicuous in appearance, and peculiar in structure, at one time trailing 
their stems on, or below the ground, and, at another, elevating them into the air like 
the trunk of Palms, may well commence the series of Cryptogamic Plants. Ferns 
differ much from all living plants, but have numerous representatives in the Fossil 
Flora. They prevail chiefly where there is a certain degree of moisture ; hence they 
are abundant in insular situations, in the forests of tropical countries, as well as on the 
mountains ofhorthern latitudes. Heat, though favourable to their development, is 
less necessary than moisture ; but this of itself produces greater equability of tempe- 
rature, and hence we have Ferns widely diffused ; prevalent in islands, and diminishing 
on continents, but even there, more abundant in the moist, than in the dry parts. This 
$12 also 
