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CATS-TAIL GRASS blows from June to Octo- Tw r pT s t«ia. 

 ber, and is common to every meadow, but not profit- 

 able to the farmer. This grass has a fibrous root when 

 growing in pastures that are uniformly moist ; but in 

 dry situations, or such as are only occasionally wet, it 

 acquires a bulbous root, whose inner substance is moist 

 and fleshy ; exhibiting a curious instance of the provi- 

 sion of nature to guard the plant against too sudden a 

 privation of moisture from the soil. 



To this Class, with a very few exceptions, belong 

 all that numerous Order of vegetables called Grasses, 

 which support the countless tribes of graminivorous 

 animals. The seeds of the smaller kinds are the suste- 

 nance of many birds; while the seeds of the larger 

 grasses, as wheat, barley, rye, and oats, supply food 

 for the human species. b Among these the wheat is 

 of the most importance, which, in its native state, is a 

 very small seed; but by culture it is enlarged, and the 

 quantity infinitely increased. From a single grain, Mr. 

 Charles Miller, of Cambridge, produced no less than 

 three pecks and three quarters, weighing 4/ pounds, 



b The number of British grasses are very variously estimated 

 by different authors; but Dr.Smkh, who is most to be depended 

 on, describes 1 13 species in his Flora Hritannica. 



The word grass conveys to the mind a description of plants 

 more easily conceived than defined; yet perhaps they may be 

 thus described, as plants which have commonly round, hol- 

 low jointed, unbranched, stems, with leaves very entire, and 

 longer than they are broad; seed contained in chaffy husks, 

 and when germinating, not parting in lobes or cotyledons. 



