AKTHOXAKTHtTM. 279 



The Order of the Grasses prevails wherever there 

 is a soil, in all countries and climes, varying in species and 

 habit with the climate. In cool, temperate regions, they are 

 dwarfed and crowded, forming a soft carpet of turf. In 



6, creeping rhizome of Witch Grass (Triticum repens). 



warm or torrid regions they form no turf, but grow apart, 

 enlarged, even arising into trees like the stately Bamboo. 



The order is no less valuable to man than vast in extent. 

 It furnishes sweet herbage as fodder for animals, and farina- 

 ceous grains as food for man. No poisonous herb is found 

 among them except perhaps the Darnel.* 



The Common Oat, Avena satwa, is said to be a native of the Island 

 of Juan Fernandez. Its grain is richly nutritious both for man and 

 beast. The grain is firmly inclosed in its husk the pales from which 

 it is first separated in the manufacture of oat-meal. The Wild Oat, 

 or Animated Oat, is Avena fatua. Its long hygrometric awn is put in 

 motion by slight changes in the moisture of the air. 



Barley is the grain of Hordeum distichum and H. vulgar e, the former 

 the Two-rowed, the latter the Four-rowed. Native country unknown. 



Rye (Secdle ceredle] is next to Wheat in value for bread-making. It 

 is chiefly cultivated in Russia and Germany. 



* Said to be a narcotic poison ; but this has not been fully proved. It is the same 

 plant (Lolium ternulenturri) alluded to in St. Matthew as Tares. Some Grasses with 

 creeping subterranean stems, as Quick Grass (Triticum repens} are troublesome weeds. 

 Others of similar habit, as Elymus arenarius, Psamma arenaria, bind the loose sand 

 of the sea-shore together, preventing incursions of the sea. Numerous floating islands 

 in the Eiver Amazon are formed chiefly of Grasses. They are called Llhas cle Capim. 

 Some of these islands are acres in extent, and from 5 to 8 feet of their thickness ia 

 under water. (See Harper's Magazine, February, 1879.) 



