134 GRASSES. 



has two flowers, and the wheat three flowers witliin the same bracts ; the interior 

 valve of the corolla of the wheat is usually bearded. The filaments in the 

 rye and wheat are exnert, from which circumstance these grains are more ex 

 posed to injury from heavy rains than plants whose filaments are shorter. In 

 the whole of the vegetable kingdom, though there are many plants of much 

 greater brilliancy of appearance, there are none more important to man than the 

 grass family. 



a. Linnffius, who was distinguished for the liveliness of his fancy no less than the 

 clearness of his reasoning powers, seemed to delight in tracing analogies between 

 plants and men : establishing among the former a kind of aristocracy, he called 

 grasses the plebeians of the vegetable kingdom. To them, indeed, belong neither 

 brilliancy of appearance nor delicacy of constitution ; numerous, humble, and rustic, 

 and at the same time giving to man and beast the sustenance necessary to preserve 

 life, the grasses may well be compared to the unassuming farmer and mechanic, to 

 wliom society is indebted for its existence and prosperity, far more than to tho 

 idle fop or blustering politician. 



175. The grasses are supposed to include nearly one-sixtli 

 part of the whole vegetable world ; they cover the earth as with 

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

 these, most valuable as furnishing food for cattle, are herds-grass 

 [PJilemn j^ratense) ; meadows-grass (Poet) ; orchard-grass {Dacty- 

 lis) ; and oats. The Phleum ]yratense has a long cylindric spike 

 or head, consisting of many minute flowers. Each valve of 

 the calyx glume is flattened and obtuse, terminated by a very 

 short bristle ; within these two truncated valves is the corolla 

 glume, consisting also of two awnless or sim23le valves. The 

 Alojyecurus^ or fox-tail grass^ resembles the herds-grass, but 

 flowers earlier ; it bears a soft instead of a rough spike, and a co- 

 rolla glume of but one valve, bearing an awn on the back. In 

 the Poa^ or meadow-grass, of wdiich there are many species, the 

 flowers are in small heads called sjpilaelets^ and have a general 

 calyx glume including from three or five to forty flower glumes 

 which are all consequently destitute of any thing more than the 

 two-valved general calyx, and are without any proper ca\y:r to 

 each flower ; the flow^er is com]3ressed so as to appear almost 

 keeled, and is destitute of awns. If, with all these a23pearances, 

 except a roundness and rigidity in the valves, they should grad- 

 ually terminate in awns or bristles, the plant will be a Festuca 

 (Fescue-grass) in place of a Foa. But if the plant, with the 

 same appearance generally, should have the corolla glume blunt, 

 and awned a very little below the point, it will then be a Bro- 

 onus instead of a Festuca. The reed (Arundo) is distinguished by 

 having three, five, or more woolly glumes in a common or rather 

 long membraneous calyx. It has also broader leaves than almost 

 any other grass, is nearly aquatic, and generally of gigantic 

 hight in all the species. In wheat the flowers are collected 

 into a spike of two rows, made up of spikelets or clusters, seated 



Importance of the grass family — a. What did Linnaus call the grasses? — 175. Which are amonj 

 tlie most valuable grasses for cattle 1 — Which for tho use of man? — Phleum — Alopecurus, Poa, iic. 



