THE 



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Apeil, 1859. 



'EASSES constitute so large a division of the vege- 

 table kingdom, and mingle in so many forms with 

 the varied scenes of Nature, as to demand from the 

 botanist the most assiduous and careful study. 

 There is no part of the Avorld but in which some 

 members of the family are to be found. In the 

 trollies they rival oaks in magnitude, and mingle 

 with the arborescent vegetation as essential ele- 

 ments of the jungle and the forest ; and where life expires in the embraces 

 of perpetual winter, grasses arc the last of flowering plants that linger on 

 the verge of those silent regions of frost and death. In South Shetland 

 islands, at an elevation of 7000 feet, Aira antarctica blooms alone in a 

 region of "thick-ribbed ice;" and in the far north, in Iceland, Greenland, 

 and the extreme latitude of 70 5°, Trisetum suhspicatum, which has perhaps 

 a greater geographical range than any plant with which we are acquainted, 

 braves the sleet and darkness, and during the short arctic siimmer puts 

 forth its pretty blossoms, and ripens abundance of seeds. If we did not 

 count among the grasses the sources of our staple foods in wheat, barley, 

 rye, oats, Indian corn, rice, and sugar ; of our beverages, the food of 

 our cattle, the materials for numerous manufactiu'es, including matting, 

 cordage, baskets, plait, thatch, and paper, the grasses would, nevertheless, 

 claim a high consideration for their beauty, their wide distribution, their 

 bright green verdure, and the immensity of their numbers. The glorious 

 carpeting of green, spread over hill and valley, whether the soil be a 

 hungry sand or a clay submerged in water, is the most distinctive feature 

 in the scenery of Britain, and the admiration of every foreigner who sets 

 foot on our shores. 



Neither the olive-growths of the south of Europe, the palm-tree-dotted 

 plains of Asia, the vast umbrageous leafiness of tropical jungles, or even 

 Vallumbrosa itself, whose ''autumnal leaves" rustle in the most melliflu- 

 ous line of English poetry, ever present, in the best of their several 

 seasons of highest luxuriance, anything to compare with the rolling sward 

 of a fine old English park, or the velvet breadths of verdure of our 

 agricultiu'al pastures ! In our gardens, grass-lawns complete the luxury 

 vox,. II. — NO. IV. 1; 



