178 GRASSES. 



orange, the lemon, the olive, the grape, the fig, the 

 date, the bread-fruit, the pine-apple, the melon, and 

 a great variety of others, grow in endless profu- 

 sion, and afford to the inhabitants a wholesome and 

 grateful provision, fitted for their peculiar wants. 



The grasses, or cereal ia, as they are termed by 

 botanists, form one of the most important and most 

 useful families in the vegetable kingdom. It is 

 these which cover the earth with verdure, and it is 

 these which form the principal part of our food. 

 Wheat, oats, barley, rye, millet, maize, or Indian 

 corn, and rice are included in the grasses, and 

 furnish man with bread, and its substitutes, in all 

 parts of the world in which they grow. 



What is generally called grass consists of a 

 number of plants, all remarkable for their slender 

 stems, their thin and delicate leaves, and for their 

 mode of flowering. One of their most valuable 

 and singular properties is, that the more they are 

 eaten away and apparently injured, the more they 

 flourish, as this strengthens their roots, and makes 

 them grow with double vigour. This eminently 

 fits them for being browsed upon by cattle, which 

 find their entire support from them. 



Some of these, which are small in our country, 

 grow to a great size in hot countries, and are found 

 taller than a. man, covering vast plains. The in- 

 habitants of warm climates are supported in a great 

 measure by rice and maize, whilst in colder coun- 

 tries man lives chiefly on wheat and oats. The 

 sugar-cane, from the juice of which sugar is pro- 



