12 GRASSES. 



yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his 

 kind ; and it was so ; and God saw that it was good." 



The term grass, as it is sometimes used in Scrip- 

 ture, evidently includes a great variety of plants, as 

 in the passage commencing with, "If God so clothe 

 the grass of the field which to-day is and to-morrow 

 is cast into the oven," &c., it undoubtedly alludes to 

 the various smaller herbs which commonly grow in 

 the fields, as in those days the stems of plants were 

 often gathered by the poorer classes, and used for 

 fuel. 



Of what is commonly called grass, there are many 

 varieties, some of them possessing properties which 

 render them very useful; while others seem to be 

 created for the special purpose of beautifying the 

 earth. Children may often be seen plucking their 

 tall straight stems, and seem to take much delight in 

 arranging them into bunches; and we might suppose 

 that the interest generally felt in the soft verdure 

 and the cool and refreshing appearance of a luxuriant 

 grassy field or lawn, would excite in all but the most 

 indifferent a desire of knowing something more than 

 that certain plants are called grasses, as an acquaint- 

 ance with their structure and properties cannot fail 

 to afford both instruction and entertainment. 



The vegetable kingdom is divided into three great 

 natural orders, called Acrogenous, Exogenous, and 

 Endogenous, terms referring to their different modes 

 of growing. To the last of these belong the grasses. 

 The word Endogenous means ingrowing ; that is, the 

 increase in the growth takes place upon the interior 



