1847.] The Grasses. 35 



ON THE GRASSES. 



BY S. B. BUCKLEY. 



We are aware that ranch has been written in this country on 

 the grasses, and that ah-eacly two essays on them have been pub- 

 lished, one by Prof. Dewey, in the first volume of the JYew Gene- 

 see Farmer, and the other by the late Judge Buel, in the third 

 volume of the Cultivator. The want of correct figures of the 

 different species treated of in those communications, lessen very 

 much their value. For example, suppose a farmer finds a grass 

 growing, the name of which he desires to know, it is very doubt- 

 ful if he can determine it from either of those essays, although it 

 may be there mentioned and recommended. To remedy this dif- 

 ficulty, and enable the farmer to become acquainted with the names 

 of some of the most common and useful grasses, by giving correct 

 drawings in flower and fruit, of at least one species of most of 

 the genera growing in the United States, will be the aim of this 

 and the succeeding papers we hope to publish in this Journal. 



Grass, in botany, is defined to have a hollow cylindrical stem, 

 closed at the nodes and joints. Flowers in spikelets, consisting 

 of chaff-like leaves, of which the exterior are called glumes, and 

 the two which immediately enclose the flower are called palese. 

 Stamens generally three, and seed single. Therefore, wheat, bar- 

 ley, rye, oats, indian corn, rice, and sugar cane, are true grasses, 

 and clover, and other similar plants are not, though frequently 

 called by that name. We shall use the term grass, as it is gene- 

 rally understood by farmers. Of the true grasses there are about 

 one hundred and twenty species growing in the state of New 

 York, according toTorrey thevState botanist; in Massachusetts one 

 hundred and twenty-one species are enumerated by Hitchcock; 

 the catalogue of plants growing in the vicinity of New Haven, 

 Connecticut, has seventy-six species; Drake's catalogue of Ver- 

 mont plants has seventy -seven ; a catalogue of plants recently pub- 

 lished at Providence, Rhode Island, of the plants growing in that 

 vicinity, contains forty-seven species; we have eighty (according 

 to Sartwell) species growing in the vicinity of Seneca and Crook- 

 ed Lakes in western New York; Darlington's catalogue of Ches- 

 ter county, Pennsylvania, has ninety-six species; Aiken's cata- 

 logue of plants growing in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland, 

 contains seventy -five species; a synopsis of the flora of the west- 

 ern states by Riddell, has one hundred and twenty-seven species; 

 Short's catalogue'of Kentucky plants has one hundred; a catalogue 

 of plants growing in the vicinity of Quincy, middle Florida, re- 

 cently published by Chapman, has ninety-four species; Beck's 



