GRASSES. 139 



enabling them to be widely distributed by the winds. Others 

 are provided with hooks or barbed spines, by means of which 

 they become attached to clothing or to tlie wool or hair of ani- 

 mals, and are thus carried about from place to place. Others are 

 so constructed that they will float upon the water, and may be 

 carried long distances by rivers and streams or tides. Others 

 again have firm protective coatings, so that they may pass unin- 

 jured through the stomachs of birds or animals feeding upon 

 them, and are disseminated in this way. These are among the 

 natural means of distribution. The manner in which grasses 

 have been distributed through the agency of civilization and 

 commerce is no less varied. 



The diversity of form presented by grasses is accompanied by 

 an almost equal diversity in their station, or place of growth. 

 Some are limited to the Arctic regions, others are found only in 

 the tropics ; some grow in the sand along seacoasts, others again 

 are confined to the highest mountain-tops near the limits of per- 

 petual snow ; some flourish only in moist meadows, others exist 

 in the most arid deserts ; some grow in the shadows of forests, 

 others thrive only upon open plains ; some are confined to soils 

 heavily charged with lime, others make vigorous groAvth where 

 practically no lime exists. And it is with all these varied pecu- 

 liarities Avhich grasses present, that the student of these plants 

 must become familiar, in order intelligently to direct his efforts 

 to improve the forage and grazing resources of the country, the 

 prime feature of interest that the farmer has in this subject. 



We Avill now limit our remarks to the consideration of the 

 economic grasses of this State. It is hard to say which is the 

 most important of these. But if one pays a visit to Cape Cod, 

 as it was my good fortune to do last summer, he will certainly 

 be struck with the great importance of Beach grass, and the 

 special value Avhich it possesses for binding the drifting sands of 

 the coast. Beach grass extends along the sandy shores of the 

 coast just above the reach of the higher tides, from Maine to 

 Virginia; but nowhere along our shores ^'ill one learn to ap- 

 preciate more fully its usefulness as a sand binder than in the 

 vicinity of Provincetown. The natural growth of Beach grass at 

 ■ this point has done much towards checking the progress of the 

 sand dunes towards the town and harbor, the filling in of the 

 latter being threatened by the moving of these great bodies of 



