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pearance of life remains, yet they revive. The solicitude 

 of the Author of Nature, for the preservation of this im- 

 portant tribe of vegetables, appears from their flowering 

 stems being rendered unfit for the food of cattle, that 

 nothing may hinder the perfecting of their seeds. Besides, 

 the more they are cut and ill-treated, the more vigorously 

 they grow, propagating themselves proportionably under 

 ground ; and in order that they may be enabled to thrive 

 any where, their narrow leaves are so contrived, as to 

 insinuate themselves between the divisions or branches of 

 other herbs, without any mutual impediment. There are 

 very few grasses agreeable to our palate. For the most 

 part they are insipid, like pot-herbs ; a very small num- 

 ber being fragrant. None are nauseous or poisonous. 

 Grasses are the most simple of all plants; having scarcely 

 any spines, prickles, tendrils, stings, bracteas, or similar 

 appendages to their herbage." 



"Their stem is termed a culm, being hollow, composed 

 of joints which are separated by impervious knots. In 

 our quarter of the world the culm is usually simple, unless 

 in consequence of cutting away the flowering part ; in the 

 Indies most culms are branched. The leaves are mostly 

 alternate, always undivided, and generally flat on both 

 sides, with a rough edge, and either smooth or hairy sur- 

 face. Each leaf stands on a sheath, which embraces the 

 stem, and is crowned with a membrane, sometimes termed 

 ligula, closely embracing the stem, to hinder the admis- 

 sion of water. The sheath springs from a knot, and (with 

 its membrane) answers the purpose of a stipula." 



" The fructification of Grasses differs so much from 

 that of other plants, that it was supposed impossible to 

 reduce them to scientific order. They were first distin- 

 guished into corn and grasses ; but such a distinction is 

 founded merely on the comparatively larger seeds of the 

 former, on which we depend for food, as small birds do 

 on the very minute seeds of the latter. Ray was the first 

 botanist who undertook a regular examination of grasses. 



