32 AND OTHER FOKAGKE PLANTS. 



other crop that could have been grown on the same land even 

 though free from the Coco. 



CLADIUM EFFUSUM is the Saw grass of marshy places, with 

 its saw-edged leaves working fearful damage to clothes and skin 

 of those coming in contact with it. 



The principal use of the Carex stricta, or tussock grass is as a 

 footing to persons crossing boggy lands. 



"CHAPTER ix. 



The Grass Family. 



The first and oldest fiat ever uttered calling into existc IKV 

 any organized being of which we have any knowledge or record 

 went forth as soon as the land was born from the watery womb 

 of the Abyss ; and it runs thus : "Let the Earth bring forth proas." 

 Gen., I, 11. Promptly Earth donned her emerald robe. Ge- 

 ology confirms the record that grasses were among the earliest 

 organized things of our terraqueous globe. And this must needs 

 be so, since it is written "bread is the staff of life" and declared 

 that "All flesh is grass." The greatest earthly blessings con- 

 ferred on men and animals are derived from a luxuriant growth 

 of grasses; the greatest distresses and curses, from their absence 

 or destruction. , 



This very large family or Order furnishes a greater number 

 of useful plants than any other. And they are in many respects 

 more valuable and more essential to the support of animal life 

 than all others together. Besides fibres for cordage and textiles 

 of many kinds, coal and other fuels, many other materials use- 

 ful in many arts, sugars and syrups, they supply the bulk of 

 foods for man and beast. 



As illustrating the value of this family, it may be stated that 

 the value of the annual products of grasses in the United States 

 is several times greater than that of the cotton crop of the whole 

 world. Even the hay crop of the United States is worth more 

 than the entire cotton crop of the whole world. 



The farmer, therefore, has a deeper, more abiding interest in 

 this order of plants than in all others. For what would be the 

 condition of man without maize, wheat, barley, oats, rye, rice and 

 sugar cane? What of animals without other grasses? Yet on- 

 ly a few of the thousands of species can be mentioned here. 



LEERSIA. 



1. L. OEYZOIDES. White Grass, Cut Grass, False Rice. 

 This beautiful native grass is found in wet, swampy places, and 

 along the margins of ditches and streams. The stems grow 



