NATURAL HISTORY. 7 



been seen, to other plants than those commonly called grasses, 

 the order gramiuese, as I have already stated, embracing the 

 grains, as wheat, barley, rye, and many others, while it does 

 not inclnde the clovers, which properly belong to the order of 

 leguminous plants. * 



These characteristics, or at least the most important of them, 

 will be very easily kept in mind, as the long, narrow and lance 

 shaped leaves, and the mealy nature of the seeds Avhicli makes 

 nearly the whole family valuable and nutritious ; but in study- 

 ing the distinctive characteristics of the difTerent species and 

 varieties particularly valuable or interesting to an agriculturist 

 as forage plants, it will be necessary to depend more upon the 

 technical terms already referred to, though these will be avoided, 

 or explained in the context as far as possible. 



It will have been observed that considerable importance is 

 given to the flowers and seeds as distinguishing characters of 

 the grasses. It will often be found difficult from the mere 

 external appearance of a variety of grass to determine to what 

 species, or even to what genus it belongs, so great is the resem- 

 blance between the different species of this class of plants ; but 

 with the aid of a small magnifying glass there will very seldom 

 be much difficulty in determining the species, especially if the 

 plant is taken while in blossom. Indeed, it will often be pos- 

 sible, to arrive at a conclusion from an inspection of a few of the 

 more evident characters. 



I shall limit myself mainly to a description of those species 

 which it may be for the interest of the farmer to cultivate, or 

 at least to encourage in his pastures, with such others as should 

 be known to be avoided. 



In the arrangement of species I shall follow mainly the natu- 

 ral order adopted by Profe?sor Gray, *to whom, as well as to 

 many others, I am indebted for no small assistance, in studying 

 the specific characteristics of many of the specimens collected 

 and presented in the following pages. 



The reader will find that a frequent reference to figures 1, 2, 

 3, 4 and 5 will greatly aid him in becoming familiar with the 

 technical terms applied to the organs or parts of tlie flower 

 which it is desirable to understand, and by means of which he 

 will soon learn to distinguish the different species more readily. 



In giving the scientific names, the first word that occurs in 



