CHAPTER I. 
THE VEGETATIVE ORGANS. 
THAT grasses are interesting and important plants is 
a fact recognised by botanists all the world over, yet it 
would appear that people in general can hardly have 
appreciated either their interest or their importance ' 
seeing how few popular works have been published 
concerning their structure and properties. 
Apart from their almost universal distribution, and 
quite apart from the fascinating interest attaching to 
those extraordinary tropical giants, the Bamboos, West 
Indian Sugar-cane, the huge Reed-grasses of Africa, the 
Pampas-grasses of South America; and from the utilitarian 
value of the cereals—Maize, Rice, Wheat and other 
corn, &c.—everyone must be struck by the significance 
of the enormous tracts of land covered by grasses in all 
parts of the world, the Prairies of North America and 
the Savannahs of the South, the Steppes of Russia and 
Siberia, and the extensive tracts of meadow and pasture- 
land in Europe being but a few examples. 
W. i! 
