18 GRASSES. 
pal crops, being extensively 
used as feed for horses and 
cattle; it is much easier of 
culture than wheat, and can 
be grown on soil that would 
scarcely produce a good crop 
of any other grain. In Ive- 
land it is raised in great 
quantities, and together with 
potatoes, forms a considera- 
ble part of the food of the 
peasantry. Almost any cli- 
mate is adapted to the growth 
of Oats. Good crops have been seen growing close 
to the line of perpetual snow, at the Glacier de Bois- 
sons, on Mont Blanc; and it is said to have been 
found in a wild state on the island of Juan Fernan- 
des, in the Southern Ocean; but the few plants dis- 
covered there may have been produced by grains 
accidentally scattered by some of the pirates who in- 
fested those seas soon after the discovery of the island. 
Rice is a native of warm climates, and differs in 
the mode of its cultivation from any other grain that 
is grown. Those spots where various animal and 
vegetable substances are washed down by rivers, are 
most favorable to its growth. The marshy parts of 
Hindostan and Carolina are among the chief porticns 
of the globe where rice is brought to perfection. But 
the American rice is generally considered as being 
much better than that which is grown in the Kast 
Indies 
Panicle of Oats. 
