MOSSES. LICHENS. TREES. SHRUBS. 55 



192. All the grasses, all kinds of grain of which meal 

 or flour is made, called the cereal grains, such as wheat, 

 barley, rye, oats, rice, maize or Indian corn, and also the 

 sugar-cane, broom-corn and millet, belong to the Grass 

 Family, the most friendly of all to the family of man. 



193. The Mosses are low plants with many leaves and 

 a peculiar fruit, like bird-wheat. 



194. Lichens are the thin crust-like plants which we 

 see covering the surface of rocks, trunks of old trees, &c.* 



195. The difference between a tree, a shrub, and an 

 undershrub, is not precisely marked. A tree is taller 

 than a shrub. Most of the oaks are trees ; but two of 

 those growing in New England arc shrubs. Most shrubs 

 throw out branches very near the ground, but some, the 

 sweet fern, for example, usually do not. Undershrubs 

 are very low shrubs, like the low blueberries, cranberries, 

 and pigeon plums, checkerberry, and May flower. 



196. For the cultivation or planting of perennial 

 plants, the soil must be stirred as deeply as can well be 

 done. Annual plants do not throw down their roots so 

 far into the earth, and therefore do not absolutely require 

 so deep cultivation. But most of them repay the expense 

 and trouble of deep ploughing; and annual plants, 

 having but a short time to grow, must be supplied with 

 a great abundance of suitable food. 



197. Some plants are cultivated on account of the value 

 of their seeds, roots or fruits, as food for man. These 

 are called alimentary. Others are cultivated as food for 



* For full and exact information upon the whole subject of plants, their 

 growth, structure, names and properties, study a delightful little book by Prof. 

 Asa Gray, called How PLANTS GROW. For still fuller information, study Gray s 

 LESSONS ON BOTANY. For the fullest and most philosophical information to be 

 found in any one volume in our or any other language, study Gray s STRUCTURAL 

 and SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



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