GRASS. 



GRASS. 



low, with a row of black spots on the top, and 

 another on each side ; the under-side of the 

 body, and the large muff-like tufts on the fore- 

 legs, are white ; and the other legs are black. 

 This moth rests with its wings closed like a 

 steep roof over its back, and its fore-legs 

 stretched forward like a Centra. It expands 

 from one inch and a half to one inch and three 

 quarters. 



Eudryas unio, of Hubner, the pearl Eudryas, 

 as its name implies, is a somewhat smaller 

 moth, closely resembling the preceding, from 

 which it differs in having the stripe and band 

 on its fore-wings of a brighter purple-brown 

 colour, the round and kidney-shaped spots con- 

 tiguous to the former also brown, the olive- 

 coloured edging of the band wavy, with a pow- 

 dered blue spot between it and the triangular 

 olive-coloured spot on the inner margin, and a 

 distinct brown spot on the inner hind angle of 

 the posterior wings ; all the wings beneath are 

 broadly bordered behind with light .brown, and 

 the spots upon them are also light brown. It ex- 

 pands from one inch and three-eighths to one 

 inch and a half. This species has been taken 

 in Massachusetts, but it is rare, and the cater- 

 pillar is unknown to me. (Harris.) 



GRASS (Goth, gras ; Icel. graes, from gro, to 

 germinate, to sprout). The common herbage 

 of the field on which cattle feed. 



The grasses, it has been often and well said, 

 "are nature's care." There is, perhaps, no 

 class of the vegetable world so little under- 

 stood as this. " Grass," says Professor Mar- 

 tyn, "vulgarly forms one single idea, and a 

 husbandman, when he is looking over his en- 

 closure, does not dream that there are upwards 

 of 300 species of grass, of which 30 or 40 may 

 be at present under his eye. They have 

 scarcely had a name besides the general one 

 till within these 20 years; and the few par- 

 ticular names which have been given them 

 are far from having obtained general use, so 

 that we may fairly assert that the knowledge 

 of this most common and useful tribe of plants 

 is yet in its infancy." (Letters on Botany, xiii.) 

 It is certain, however, that since Professor 

 Martyn wrote, much has been done to add to 

 our knowledge of the grasses. These grow in 

 all parts of the world promiscuously, and with- 

 out cultivation, affording both directly and in- 

 directly the means of subsistence to man. 

 Europeans live chiefly upon wheat, rye, and 

 barley, to which list their American de- 

 scendants have added maize or Indian corn. 

 "The cultivation of the earth," says Professor 

 Johnson, " preceded the improvement of the in- 

 tellect, and was the herald of civilization. It 

 is remarkable that we have no direct criterion 

 of the origin of many of those grasses met with 

 everywhere in cultivation, as none of them are, 

 to any extent, found wild. Some travellers 

 have thought that barley was indigenous to 

 Tartary, rye to Creta, and wheat to Asia, but 

 these might have been diffused from some cul- 

 tivated some years previously. Corn is not 

 only the support of man, but the grasses are 

 the subsistence of the animals which form his 

 nutriment. The nutritive quality of grasses is 

 principally owing to the sugar which they con- 

 tain, and of which some English grasses con- 

 568 



tain large quantities, but the sugar cane is the 

 only grass that is exclusively cultivated for ob- 

 taining this article for commerce. The grasses 

 are applied to a vast variety of important me- 

 chanical purposes; they are found in every 

 part of the world, from the Poles to the Equa- 

 tor; on the land, as well as floating on the 

 water, and are the universal food of animals." 



The botanist has shown that there are more 

 than 130 distinct native species and varie- 

 ties of grass in Great Britain, all possessing 

 distinct properties, and varying in their de- 

 grees of value to the farmer, from the most 

 worthless, to those on which his successful 

 farming chiefly depends. The researches, too, 

 commenced by the late Duke of Bedford, and 

 carried on during a series of years in the grass 

 garden at Woburn, have added very materially 

 to our stock of knowledge concerning these 

 plants ; for, instituted with a public object, and 

 under the careful and skilful management of 

 one of my earliest correspondents, the late Mr. 

 George Sinclair, the results were given by him. 

 to the public in the Hortus Gramineus Wohur- 

 nensis, a valuable and elaborate work, to which 

 I am chiefly indebted for the matter of this and 

 other articles upon the grasses. The manner 

 in which these celebrated experiments of the 

 Duke of Bedford were conducted, is thus de- 

 scribed : 



"Spots of ground, each containing 4 square 

 feet, in the garden at Woburn Abbey, were en- 

 closed by boards in such a manner that there 

 was no lateral communication between the 

 earth included by the boards, and that of the 

 garden. The soil was removed in these en- 

 closures, and new soils supplied; or mixtures 

 of soils were made in them, to furnish as far as 

 possible to the different grasses those soils 

 which seem most favourable to their growth, a 

 few varieties being adopted for the purpose of 

 ascertaining the effect of different soils on the 

 same plant. The grasses were either planted 

 or sown, and their produce cut and collected, 

 and dried at the proper seasons, in summer 

 and autumn, by Sinclair, his Grace's gardener -^ 

 For the purpose of determining, as far as possi- 

 ble the nutritive powers of the different species, 

 equal weights of the dry grasses or vegetable 

 substances were -acted upon by hot water till 

 all their soluble pans were dissolved ; the solu- 

 tion was then evaporated to dryness by a gen- 

 tle heat in a proper stove, and the matter ob- 

 tained carefully weighed. This part of the 

 process was likewise conducted with much 

 address and intelligence by Sinclair, by whom 

 the various details and calculations were fur- 

 nished. The dry extracts supposed to contain 

 the nutritive matter of the grasses, were sent 

 to me for chemical examination. The compo- 

 sition of some of them is stated minutely; but 

 it will be found, from the general conclusions, 

 that the mode of determining the nutritive 

 power of the grasses, by the quantity of matter 

 they contain soluble in water, is sufficiently ac- 

 curate for all the purposes of agricultural in- 

 vestigation." (<Agr. Chcm. app.) 



In regard to the description of soils 1st. By 

 loam, is meant any of the earths combined 

 with decayed animal or vegetable matter. 2d. 

 Clayey loam, when the greatest proportion is 



