IN THE MEADOW 47 



the pollen from one flower is taken up and wafted to the 

 pistil of another. If, however, the wind is too strong, the 

 whole anther may be shaken off before the little dust pouch 

 has opened ; in that case only a few flowers are fertilized 

 and the yield of seed is small. Try to find a number of 

 grasses in bloom and convince yourself that insects seldom, 

 if ever, visit them. Can you name some cultivated plants 

 which belong to the Grass family ? 



26. Economy of Grasses in Nature and their Usefulness 

 to Man. 



Of all plants, the grasses are by far the most useful to 

 man in northern latitudes. Our cereals wheat, oats, barley, 

 rye, and Indian corn are simply cultivated grasses. Prove 

 by the structure of these plants that they are grasses. The 

 first three have been cultivated in the Old World from time 

 immemorial, so that we do not even know now from which 

 wild plants they were derived. Maize, or Indian corn, 

 was cultivated by the natives of America when the country 

 was discovered. Our well-known sorghum, the sugar cane 

 of the South, and cultivated rice are also grasses. 



If we examine the plants in a pasture, we find little else 

 but grasses. What is the explanation for this ? We must 

 dig up some of the sod and wash the soil out of it. We 

 find that besides the many fine roots, most grasses have a 

 thick rootstock, which survives through severe winters and 

 through parching droughts, and from this rootstock the 

 blades and stalks grow in spring. Cattle and sheep often 

 graze the pasture so closely that only very few grass 

 stalks have a chance to produce seeds. If all grasses had to 

 grow from the seed every spring, our domestic animals would 

 soon exterminate the very kinds which they like best. 



Do these plants grow annually from a subterranean rootstock or from seed ? 



