CHAPTER II 
ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION OF GRASSES 
ACCORDING to their uses, grasses may be classified into 
three main divisions,—grains, forage plants and lawn 
grasses; and four minor divisions,—ornamentals, soil- 
binders, sugar-producing grasses, and textile grasses, 
leaving a few unclassified. Another category of grasses, 
the weeds, being the antithesis of useful plants, might be 
included under economic grasses. A special chapter is 
devoted to them (Chapter EX). 
GRAINS 
6. The term grain is applied to those grasses whose 
fruit is used for food or for stock-feed. The fruit or seed 
is technically a caryopsis (Par. 162), or in popular lan- 
guage, a grain. The common grains are corn, sorghum, 
wheat, rye, barley, oats, rice, millet. 
7. Uses of the grains for food.——The seeds are rich in 
starch and usually contain also a considerable quantity 
of protein. For this reason they are eminently fitted for 
use as food. In the United States, the grain of sorghum 
and millet is not used for human food, although both are 
extensively used for this purpose in some parts of the Old 
World, especially among primitive peoples. Oats, rye 
and barley, though used to a limited extent, are of secon- 
dary importance as food plants in America. The other 
three grains, wheat, corn, and rice, are of fundamental 
(6) 
