GBASSY NOOKS. 161 



bearded appearance is well known even in the Common 

 "Wall Barley (H. Murinum). The Wheat Grasses 

 (Triticuin), include the Common Couch Grass (T. 

 repens), which is too well and unfavourably known. 

 The creeping stems, if boiled, however, form a nutri- 

 tious mass for pigs. The Fibrous-rooted Wheat Grass 

 (T. Caninum) is similar in appearance, but has no 

 creeping root. It is the canine medicine apparently, 

 for dogs eat it with avidity, and it has an emetic 

 action on them. 



The Eeed family (Arundo) claim a notice among the 

 grasses, though their ancient uses and importance 

 have departed. The pandean pipes the first musical 

 instrument is scarcely heard any longer; but the 

 reeds of the clarionet and hautboy are not yet super- 

 seded. Pens are yet sometimes made from tfeem, but 

 their use in hurdling, for thatching or plastering, is 

 now very limited. They have three to five flowers on 

 each spike, the two glumes are sharp pointed and 

 channel keeled, nearly equal. Their large panicles 

 of glossy florets, with the palese, are surrounded by 

 long soft hairs, which give a woolly appearance to the 

 clusters when in seed, which almost vie with the 

 cotton grass, which belongs to the Sedge family. There 



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