204 ORDER DIGYNIA. 



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ance nor delicacy of constitution ; numerous, humble and rus- 

 tic, and and at the same time, giving to man and beast the sus- 

 tenance necessary to preserve life, the grasses may well bo 

 compared to the unassuming farmer and mechanic, to whom 

 society is indebted far more than to the statesman and orator 

 for its existence and prosperity. 



The grasses are supposed to include nearly one sixth part of 

 the whole vegetable world ; they cover the earth as with a 

 green carpet, and furnish food for man and beast. Some of 

 the grasses most valuable as furnishing food for cattle, are 

 herds-grass (Phleum pralense) ; and meadow grass (Poo) ; 

 orchard grass (dactylis) ; and oats. Those which are used in 

 various ways as food for man, are wheat, rye, barley, and in- 

 dian corn ; this latter, botanically called ZEA mays, although of 

 the natural family of the grasses, having a culm-like stalk and 

 other distinguishing characteristics of grass-like plants, is placed 

 in the class Monoecia, because the stamens and pistils are sepa- 

 rated in different flowers, growing from the same root. The 

 styles, long, slender, and exserted, form what is called the silk : 

 they are thus favourably situated for receiving the fertilizing 

 pollen which is showered down from the staminate flowers. 



The fruit of corn, wheat, rye, &c. is called grain. Grain, 

 then, consists of the seed with its pericarp ; these are not 

 easily distinguished from each other till the grain is ground in. 

 to flour ; the pericarp separating from the seed then forms 

 what is called the bran; and the seed, thejfawr or meal. 



The sugar cane (SACCHARUM officinarum), is of the grass 

 family ; it is supposed to have been brought from the South of 

 Europe to the West Indies. The stem or culm, which some- 

 times grows to the height of twenty feet, affords the juice from 

 which the sugar is made. 



The Bamboo (ARUNDO bambos), of the East Indies, a spe- 

 cies of reed which is said to attain, in some situations, the height 

 of sixty feet, is also of this class. 



The Sedge (Carex), is a gramineous plant, but it bears stami- 

 nate and pistillate flowers, and is therefore placed in the class 

 Moncecia. The carexes* constitute a very numerous family 

 of plants. 



* The plural of carer, according to the Latin termination, is carices. 



Grasses used as food for cattle and man Zea mays Sugar cane Bamboo 

 Carex. 



