152 NATURE STUDY. 



A Useful Family. III. 



BY FREDERICK W. BATCHELDER. 



There was a time in the morning of the world when 

 plants were ver>' much alike and were very evenly distrib- 

 uted over the globe. Gradually, changes in physical con- 

 ditions brought about differentiation and unequal distribu- 

 tion. So it has come to pass that the plant world as we 

 now behold it is divided into well defined groups and the 

 several groups are more or less restricted to definite aieas, 

 zones or climates. P'or convenience we call certain groups 

 orders and families. We speak of the orchid family and 

 the grass family. It so happens that the grass family is a 

 very characteristic one ; that is to say, it possesses charac- 

 ters which distinguish it perfecth' from all other families. 

 The same is true of the orchid family. 



There must, then, have been a time when the grass fam- 

 ily- succeeded in attaining its majority, so to speak ; when 

 its place and its mission were allotted. To the same order, 

 according to the present system of classification, belongs 

 another great group of plants, the sedge familj-, with about 

 3000 species, one genus alone. Carex, having not less than 

 1000 species. Both these families doubtless came originally 

 from the same stock, but in the course of ages the grasses 

 took on a type essentially different from that of the sedges. 

 This difference is of vital importance, and the acquirement 

 of it may be called the greatest event in the development 

 of the vegetable kingdom, to be ranked with the evolution 

 of man from ape-like ancestors. 



To the unpracticed eye grasses and sedges look very 

 much alike. Especially are the members of the genus Ca- 

 rex likely at first to be mistaken for grasses, and the}^ are 

 usually called grasses. The cows know better, and will 



