A USEFUL FAMILY. 167 



grasses for fodder, the giant bamboos for the making of 

 anything from a writing pen to a house, and the sugar 

 canes for the manufacture of numberless luxuries, one 

 might think the enumeration of uses must be complete. 

 Not so. There is still another value to be noted. The 

 stems of certain grasses are of very great use to man in va- 

 rious waj's. Especially is this true of the stems of cereals, 

 for the}' supph" the straw which is so largely used in man- 

 ufactures. So important is the production of straw of good 

 qualit}' that experiments are constantly being made by 

 the mixing and crossing of different races of wheat to 

 evolve a stem of finer quality. Common straw-hats, leg- 

 horn bonnets, fanc}' baskets and mattings are some of the 

 more familiar examplas of the use of straw. 



Considering the great size of the grass family and the 

 immense diversity- of its members the fewness of species 

 which are in any way injurious or even annoA-ing to man 

 is remarkable. There is but one local species which can 

 be called a pest. This is the hedgehog grass {Cc7ichrus 

 tribiiloides) , a low coarse grass growing on or near river 

 banks. The fruit is inclosed in a prickly involucre which 

 adheres persistently to clothing or to the hair of animals 

 and is removed with difficulty. It must be very annoying 

 to cattle. Fortunate!}- it is not common enough to do 

 much harm. Another grass abundant in the west has re- 

 cently been introduced eastward which, if it should become 

 common, might be a serious pest. This is the squirrel-tail 

 grass {Hordeiim jiibatum), one of the most beautiful of 

 grasses to look upon. It is a wild barley, and, like culti- 

 vated barley, has long bristles or awns. These are exquis- 

 itely iridescent, but they are also finely barbed, and when 

 eaten in quantity by cattle cause choking, not infrequently 

 with fatal consequences. 



As a rule the quality of a grass is indicative of the qual- 

 itV of the soil in which it grows. The most useful grasses 



