l<?5 BOTANY KOR I EGINNLRS. [ Ch. XXL 



seed. The grasses which serve for the subsistence of cattle are 

 mostly perennial ; though the herbage dies at the approach ol 

 winter, the roots live, and are ready to throw out their shoots on 

 the return of spring. 



539. Grasses are not recommended for young botanists ro 

 analyze, because it is often difficult to distinguish the different 

 genera, as they appear in many respects very similar, and the 

 flowers are not showy like those of many other plants ; how- 

 ever, you can easily distinguish the different parts of a bunch of 

 grass, viz. : the fibrous root, the culm-like stem, the long and 

 narrow leaves, and the flowers with their green stamens and 

 pistils. 



540. There are some coarse grass-like plants, which grow in 

 bogs and marshes, destitute of those nourishing qualities which 

 belong to the grasses generally ; they are known by the name 

 of rushes, sedges, and cat-tails: most of them have tneir sta- 

 mens and pistils on separate flowers, and are therefore placed in 

 the class Mmictcia. 



CLASS IV. TF.TRANDIA, four stamens. 



541. ORDER 1, MONOGYNIA, one pistil. This class presents us 

 with flowers of four stamens of nearly equal length ; there is 

 another class, the 13th, in which the plants have four stamens, 

 but these grow in two pairs of unequal length. 



Fig. 75. 



542. The cut represents at a the 

 stamens, pistils, and four leaved calyx, 

 of the common plaintain ; at 6, those ol 

 the Cornus, or Box- wood ; .at c, is a 

 flower of the Cissus, or false grape, its 

 calyx is very small, (not seen in the 

 cut,) tl>e petals are large and bent 

 back, the filaments are shorter than 

 the petals and crowned with large an- 

 thers. 



543. There is a little pale blue flow- 

 er which almost every child in New 

 England knows and loves. It i? 

 known by different names ; some cal 



539. A re grasses the best flowers for beginners in botany to analyze } 



540. What is said of the grass-like p^nis which grow in bogs and 

 n'arshes'? 



541. How does the 4th class differ from the 13th 1 

 64*2 Wi ->.t does Fig 75 repr-rent J 



