230 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS.^ 



3. Food for animals, domestic animals only. The use, too, 

 of the herbage, not of the seed, is here to be considered, in re- 

 spect to cattle, horses, sheep, &c., or as pasturage and hay. 



The cultivated grasses are chiefly employed for this purpose. 

 The two varieties of red clover, the species of white, as 

 well as Russia clover. Lucerne, &c., belong to other orders. In 

 our fields are chiefly cultivated several kinds of Poa, Agrostis, or 

 red and white top, Phleum or Timothy grass, Alopecurus or true 

 Fox-tail grass, in small quantity, Festuca, Aira, Panicum, Cinna, 

 'Wild Oats and Wild Rye, Briza, DactyUs or Orchard grass, 

 Andropogon, several species of Cyperus, and 10 — 30 species of 

 Carex, found in most large meadows. On the salt marshes are 

 various kinds of coarse grass, among which a species of reed- 

 grass is prominent. In the Southern States are many species of 

 Cyperus, and of Andropogon or Broom-grass, the latter being 

 widely spread over the low country, and giving the dry and life- 

 less appearance of an arid soil in winter. 



4. In respect to the beauty the grasses give to fields and woods. 

 While the useful is the most important, the pleasing is not to be ne- 

 glected. If, then, we cast our eyes over the waving fields of sum- 

 mer, it is the multitude of the grasses which delights us. Though 

 the flow^ers of the grasses present no attractions, yet, associated 

 as they are with the very support and comforts of life, no splen- 

 dor of flowers of the other orders would long be compared with 

 the beauty of the fields, which wave in the winds their rich treas- 

 ures, for the support of *' the cattle on a thousand hills," and of 

 "man, who goeth forth to his work till the evening," the lord of 

 all these lower works. 



In the tropical regions, some of the grasses reach a great mag- 

 nitude, as some of the reeds are 50-60 feet high, and 6 or S 

 inches in diameter. Like the tree-ferns of the same region, these 

 are tree-grasses. The leaves are more expanded also, and the 

 appearance more like that of some other orders, and the flowers 

 become larger and more beautiful. In and near the torrid zone, 

 the grasses grow more as separate individuals, and the number is 

 proportionably less. The thick, dense, grassy turf, which cov- 

 ers the Northern and Middle States, disappears at the South. 

 AVhat is gained in the magnitude of the grasses, is lost in the 



