102 IVILD, OR XA7IVE FLOWERS. 



Grasses. 



" And God said let the earth l)ring forth grass, 

 The herb yielding seed." 

 »»»»*»■**** 



" And the earth lirought forth grass, 



And herb yielding seed." — Gen. I,ii-i2. 



In drawing this little volume on the native plants to a conclusion, 

 though many have been left unnoticed or unknown by me, I must say 

 a few words respecting the Grasses. Not indeed to add a botanical 

 description of this most beautiful and graceful tribe of plants, which 

 deserves a volume from the pen of one who has given great attention to 

 the subject, and which seems to me to require the knowledge of a 

 scientific botanist. To do justice to that I must confess I am not 

 competent ; any knowledge that I possess is simply that of an observer 

 and a lover of the beautiful works of my Creator. 



The student of botary will not be content merely with my 

 superficial desultory way of acquiring a more intimate acquaintance with 

 the productions of the forest and the field ; and to such I would 

 recommend a more particular study of our beautiful native Wild Grasses, 

 including the Rushes, and the Sedges. At present the field has not 

 been entered upon fully, if even its very borders have been gleaned, 

 unless by that industrious and indefatigable botanist. Professor John 

 Macoun, whom we might well call the Father of Canadian Botany. 



But though I cannot venture to treat the subject of the Grasses as 

 a botanist, I cannot pass them by, without introducing a few of the 

 lovely graceful things to the notice of my readers. And if my remarks 

 should prove rather desultory in their range from Prairie to Forest, and 

 from Field to Lake, or from swampy bank of Creek or Marsh, I beg my 

 friends to bear with me a little while. 



Drooping gracefully in wide branching panicles, we find on our wild 

 plains a soft pale-flowered grass, known by the Indians as Deer-grass, 

 Sorghum nutans, (Gray.) in the herbage of which the Deer found (for it is 

 a thing of the past) both food and shelter. The husk or glumes 

 of this beautiful grass are hairy or minutely silky, which gives a 

 peculiar soft greyish tint to the bending pedicels of the pale spikelets. 

 The culm is irom tiiree to four feet liigh, the leaves hairy at the 

 margins. Another grass, Andropogon furaxtus (Muhl.) more showy but not 

 so graceful, being more upright in its habit of growth, differs very much 

 from the above. This grass is tall, joirited, stiffer in the stem, leaves of 

 a brighter green, heads of flowers spiked, but also branching ; glumes of 

 a rich red-brown, made more conspicuous by the bright golden yellow- 

 anthers. 'I'his grass is also a Plain grass, and known by the same 



