Of Grasses 



Interesting experiments have been made whereby it has been seen 

 that in sand, alternately wet and dried, the awns of certain grasses 

 will bury the seed several inches beneath the surface. 



Each locality shows characteristic grasses, and as in a short 

 walk we pass from low meadows to dry hillsides we find new species 

 to excite fresh interest. On sea beaches we look for the long, 

 gray-green leaves of Marram Grass, or Beach Grass, for spreading 

 clumps of Sea-beach Panic-grass, for the dark, wiry stems of Fox- 

 grass, and for rigid-leaved grasses of hot sands. Salt marshes 

 show dense jungles of reed-like grasses, Creek Sedge, Salt Reed- 

 grass, and the tall Reed. Dry hillsides are covered in spring by 

 Wild Oat-grass and Wavy Hair-grass, where later Purple Finger- 

 grass, Sheathed Rush-grass, and stiff Beard-grasses will bloom. 

 In dry fields we look for the low growth of the smaller Panic- 

 grasses, for the slender, one-sided spikes of Field Paspalum, and 

 for wide-spreading panicles of Purple Eragrostis. Borders of 

 woodlands offer Poverty Grass, Black Oat-grass, and Muhlen- 

 bergias, while in deep woods we search for shade-loving grasses, 

 the tall, slender Bottle-brush Grass, the lower Mountain Rice, and 

 the Nodding Fescue. Marshy meadows are full of interest to the 

 student of grasses: Reed Canary-grass with broad, blue-green 

 leaves borders narrow brooks, and nearby the Blue-joint Grass, 

 slender and stiff, rises bearing narrow, deeply coloured panicles; 

 graceful Manna Grasses fill the marshes of early summer, and 

 later the rough leaves and stems of Rice Cut-grass form tangled 

 masses in low grounds. By river-borders grows the great Gama 

 Grass whose leaves are so broad as to resemble those of our cul- 

 tivated corn, and in wet soil, also, is found the tall Indian Rice on 

 which the reed-bird feeds. A country dooryard of an acre may 

 show more than a dozen different grasses, while in the garden 

 near half a score of other species invade the cultivated land as 

 weeds. A large collection of grasses, preserved either as herbarium 

 specimens or in the more artistic impression prints made upon 

 photographic paper, may be gathered in a short time, and dif- 

 ferences perhaps little noticed by the casual observer will seem 

 marked indeed to the student who at the close of a summer's study 

 will deem it as unpardonable to mistake one of our common grasses 

 for another as to mistake an elm for an oak. 



Corn, wheat, oats, the day of the first cultivation of these 

 cereal grains long antedates history, and how seldom is it realized 



