140 NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



of other plants, called glumes, and two more delicate inner 

 ones, answering to the coral, called paleae. In the centre 

 stands the germ, surmounted by two feathery sessile anthers ; 

 and beneath and around the germ, there issues two or three 

 filaments, or threads bearing anthers, which are little boxes 

 containing the fertilizing matter, called pollen. The indian 

 corn and several other kinds of grasses deviate from this ar- 

 rangement in having the filaments, bearing the pollen -boxes 

 in a distant part, as the tassels; while the pollen receiving 

 organs, the silks, or pistils are connected with the germs 

 lower down upon the stalk. Wheat, rye, and oats, or the 

 hollow stemed grasses, have all the floral organs in a single 

 blossom together. 



The floral organs are borne sometimes upon a spike, a good 

 example of which is furnished in the Timothy grass, or wheat 

 head, or upon a panicle, as in the oat, red top, bent grass, &c. 



The grasses contain nutriment in their stalks, roots, leaves 

 and seeds. The important part considered as food for beast, 

 is the herbage, the stem with its "leaves and head, or panicle 

 of flowers. The seed, except in the class, cereals, is not re- 

 lied upon as an article of diet. The nutiment, so called, is 

 divided into two kinds: 1, that which contributes to the for- 

 mation of flesh and muscle. 2, that which supplies heat to 

 the system, and which is capable of accumulating in different 

 parts of the body in the form of fat. It is designed to be 

 burned in respiration by combining with oxygen, while the 

 flesh producing matters supply and renew the wasting fibre. 



104. The value of grasses for feeding stock depends upon 

 the quantity of flesh-forming and heat-generating bodies 

 which they contain. The first are known under the names of 

 albuminous substance ; albumen, the white of an egg, represents 

 the first, and sugar or starch the second. These two classes 

 are totally unlike each other, and cannot be converted one 

 into the other by any known process. All substances which 

 are used for food contain both classes, but in different propor- 

 tions. Flesh of animals is the extreme of one class and fat 

 the extreme of another. In the potatoe there is a large quan- 

 tity of heat-generating matter, and a small quantity onlv of 



