PREFACE. 



THE following pages have been written in the hope 

 that they may be used in the field and in the 

 laboratory with specimens of our ordinary grasses in the 

 hand. Most of the exercises involved demand exact study 

 by means of a good hand-lens, a mode of investigation far 

 too much neglected in modern teaching. The book is not 

 intended to be a complete manual of grasses, but to be an 

 account of our common native species, so arranged that 

 the student may learn how to closely observe and deal 

 with the distinctive characters of these remarkable plants 

 when such problems as the botanical analysis of a meadow 

 or pasture, of hay, of weeds, or of " seed " grasses are 

 presented, as well as when investigating questions of more 

 abstract scientific nature. 



I have not hesitated, however, to introduce general 

 statements on the biology and physiological peculiarities 

 of grasses where such may serve the purpose of interesting 

 the reader in the wider botanical bearings of the subject, 

 though several reasons may be urged against extending 

 this part of the theme in a book intended to be portable, 

 and of direct practical use to students in the field. 



I have pleasure in expressing my thanks to Mr R. H. 

 Biffen for carefully testing the classification of "seeds" 

 on pp. 135 — 174, and to him and to Mr Shipley for kindly 

 looking over the proofs; also to Mr Lewton-Brain, who 

 has tested the classification of leaf-sections put forward on 

 pp. 72 — 82, and prepared the drawings for Figs. 21 — 28. 



That errors are entirely absent from such a work as 

 this is perhaps too much to expect : I hope they are 

 few, and that readers will oblige me with any corrections 



