2 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



year. Within this period I have been able to make an exten 

 sive collection, embracing nearly all the varieties of our New 

 England grasses, for preservation in the Agricultural Museum 

 connected ■\vith my office. 



The grasses are variously divided, classified and arranged. 

 They are sometimes designated as natural or artificial ; the 

 former comprising all the true grasses, — that is, plants with 

 long, simple, narrow leaves, each leaf having many fine veins 

 or lines running parallel with a central prominent; vein or mid- 

 rib, and a long sheath (Fig. 1.) divided to the base, which 

 seems to clasp the stem, or through which the stem seems to 

 pass, the stem being hollow, with very few exceptions, and 

 closed at the nodes or joints ; and the latter — the artificial — 

 comprising those plants, mostly leguminous, which have been 

 cultivated and used like the grasses, though they do not 

 properly belong to that family, such as the clovers, sainfoin 

 and medic. In common language the term is often used in a 

 sense not strictly proper, being not unfrequontly applied to any 

 herbage which afibrds nourishment to herbaceous animals, 

 including, of course, not only many leguminous plants like 

 clovers, but some others which would more properly be called 

 forage plants. 



But in botanical language, and speaking more precisely, the 

 grasses, Graminece, embrace most of the grains cultivated and 

 used by man, as wheat, rye, Indian corn, barley and rice, all 

 of which will be at once recognized as having leaves and stems 

 very similar in shape and structure to most of the plants popu- 

 larly called grasses. 



As the general appearance of plants is often greatly modified 

 by climate, soil and modes of cultivation, it is important to fix 

 upon certain characteristics which are permanent and unaltered 

 by circumstances, by means of which the particular genus and 

 species may be identified with ease and certainty. It is evident 

 that these characteristics could not be simply in the leaves, or 

 the stems, or the size of the plant, because there will be a great 

 difi'erence between plants * growing in a poor, thin, sandy soil, 

 and others of the same species on a deep, rich loam. Hota- 

 nists have, therefore, been compelled to resort to other peculiari- 

 ties to distinguish between diflcrent species ; and the terms used 



