FIELD CROPS . 283 



The flowers of grasses are not pretty or conspicuous. 

 They have no colors to attract insects, but we can 

 easily tell when they bloom by the long stamens with 

 yellow anthers (see page 92) hanging out on the flower- 

 ing ear. This ear is sometimes simple, as in wheat and 

 other cereal grains, timothy, and foxtail; but more 

 commonly branching, as in oats and most pasture 

 grasses, from which very pretty bouquets can be made. 

 There are so many kinds of grasses that only a few of 

 the most important can be mentioned here, and many 

 are not easily told apart. But u everybody knows a 

 grass when he sees it," unless, as in the case of maize 

 and sorghum, some may think it too big. Nearly all 

 grasses have leaves with long blades, and veins running 

 only lengthwise, not netted, as in most other plants. 

 And there are no poisonous grasses. 



The native grasses of the Pacific Slope mostly grow in 

 tufts or bunches, not as a continuous sward like the blue 

 grass, or June grass, of our lawns, which comes from 

 Europe. This is ^because ^runners and root stocks cannot 

 readily spread in the dry surface soil. There are, therefore, 

 many kinds of "bunch grasses" in the arid regions, most of 

 them highly esteemed for pasture, while others are hard 

 and wiry and not liked by cattle. But the native pastures 

 should be carefully kept from too much grazing or " over- 

 stocking." Few native grasses are as yet cultivated, though 

 some of them deserve it as much as many brought from 

 elsewhere, since they are known to suit the climate. 



Of cultivated grasses, the most widely used is probably 



