.42 GRASSES. 



former a kind of aristocracy, he called grasses, the plebeians of the 

 vegetable kingdom. To them, indeed, belong neither brilliancy oi 

 appearance, nor delicacy of constitution ; numerous, humble, and 

 rustic;, and at the same time giving to man and beast the sustenance 

 necessary to preserve life, the gi'asses may well be compared to the 

 unassuming farmer, and mechanic, to whom society is indebted for 

 its existence and prosperity, far more than to the idle fop or bluster* 

 ing politician. 



The grasses are supposed to include nearly one sixth part of the 

 whole vegetable world ; they cover the earth as with a green carpet, 

 and furnish food for man and beast. Some of these, most valuable 

 as furnishing food for cattle, are herds-grass, {Phleum pratense,) 

 meadow-grass, (Poa,) orchard-grass, (Dactylis,) and oats. Those 

 which are used in various ways as food for man, are wheat, rye, 

 barley, and Indian-corn ; the latter botanically called Zea mays, al- 

 though of the natural family of the grasses, having a culm-like 

 stalk, and other distinguishing characteristics of grass-like plants, 

 is placed in the class Monoscia, because the stamens and pistils are 

 separated in diflerent flowers, growing from the same root. The 

 styles, long, slender, and exserted, form what is called the silk ; they 

 are thus favourably situated for receiving the fertilizing pollen which 

 is showered down from the staminate flowers. 



The fruit of corn, wheat, rye, &c., is called grain. Grain, then, 

 consists of the seed with its pericarp ; these are not easily distin- 

 guished from each other till the grain is ground into flour ; the pe- 

 ricarp separating fronfi the seed, then forms what is called the bran / 

 and the seed, i\\Q flour or meal. 



The Sugar-cane (Saccharum ojicinarum)* is of the grass family; 

 it is supposed to have been broilglit from the south of Europe to the 

 "West Indies. The stem or culm, which sometimes grows to the 

 height of twenty feet, affords the juice from which the sugar is made. 

 The Bamboo, (Arundo bambos,) of the East Indies, a species of 

 reed which is said to attain, in some situations, the height of sixty 

 feet, is also of this class. 



The Sedge ( Carex) is a gramineous plant, but it bears staminate 

 and pistillate flowers, and is therefore placed in the class MoncBcia. 

 The carexesf constitute a very numerous family of plants. 



Fig. 124 represents two 

 magnified flowers of the 

 orchard grass, {Dactylis 

 glomerata;)X at a, is a 

 calyx§ composed of two 

 valves ; these are com- 

 pressed, keeled\\ acute ; one 

 valve is shorter than the 

 valves of the flowers, the 

 other longer ; the calyx is 

 common to the two flowers; 

 Fig. 124. 5^ shows the valves of the 

 * See Appendix, Plate ii. Fig. 2. 



t The plural oi carex, according to the Latin termination, ia carices. 



t Glomerata signifies a cluster, alluding to the crowded panicles of flowers. 



§ The parts of the calyx, and also of the corolla, are sometimes called glumes ; they 



are all much alike in appearance, being merely a set of sheaths, for the purpose of 



protecting the stamens : they are not distinguished by any difference in colour from 



the leaves or stem. The antners, which are usually yellow, are the only part of the 



flower of the grasses which is coloured. II Resembling the keel of a boat. 



What did LinnEBus call the grasses ?— Which are among the most valuable grasses 

 for cattle ?— Which for the use of man?— What is said of} Indian corn 7— What ia 

 grain l— Sugar-cane— Bamboo— Sedge— What does Fig. 124 represent? 



