38 MONOCOTYLEDONE^. 



down, the secondary offsets immediately come forth 

 in greater numbers and strength than if the first 

 developed parts of the plant had sustained no injury. 

 Hence the propriety of eating down rank crops of 

 -wheat, mowing thin crops of grass, and drag-har- 

 rowing old meadows-. 



Next in value to those Graminece which yield the 

 most nutritious food and drink to man, and pasturage 

 to our herds, ranks the Saccharum qfficinale, or 

 sugar-cane, so universally employed as an article in 

 diet, and many other purposes of human life. It is 

 a perennial, having the same structure and vital 

 powers as the other grasses, only of a more robust 

 habit and greater magnitude. But the most majestic 

 in size is the Bambusa arundinacea. This plant 

 throws up a thicket of arborescent culms, which rise 

 to the height of forty feet, or even more, annually 

 increasing in number, and extending from the first 

 station. The culms, though so herbaceous when 

 they first issue from the ground as to be cut like 

 asparagus and used green as a pickle, become at last 

 perfectly ligneous, and so exceedingly compact, elas- 

 tic, and durable, that, for the construction of Indian 

 cabins, implements, and household furniture, the 

 bamboo excels all other kinds of wood. 



Car ices et Juncece. Next to the grasses are 

 ranked these generally worthless tribes. Their phy- 

 sical structure is rather more complex than the pre- 

 ceding, having a few more members in the flowers. 

 They are mostly inhabitants of barren ground, the 



