66 GRASSES. [class hi. order ii. 



substance, in what is called from that circumstance the iSugar-cane 

 has rendered the cultivation of this grass a matter of great importance, 

 as from it ^ve are so plentifully supplied with an article not only enter- 

 ing into the composition of numberless of our esteemed luxuries, but 

 which seems to have become indispensable in household economy, 

 though formerly it was found only in the apothecary's store of dreaded 

 drugs, being esteemed as a useful medicine in the cure of febrile and 

 other diseases. 



Grasses are also remarkable from the fact of their cuticle containing 

 a quantity of silex, similar to that yielded by the Equisetums ; it is 

 this which accounts for the vitrified masses which have sometimes been 

 found in the ashes of corn or hay-stacks, when destroyed by fire. This 

 siliceous secretion is perhaps effected at a greater rate in the hotter 

 than in the temperate climates. In the sugar plantations, where the 

 canes, after the extraction of the juice, become the principal fuel used 

 for the fires kept up under the pans, &c., large masses of vitrified sub- 

 stance are frequently found in the grates and amidst the ashes : these 

 masses excited considerable curiosity and speculation, before the cii'- 

 cumstance had been properly investigated and explained. 



Grasses, though found in almost every part of the globe, are far, 

 however, from being equally distributed. In tropical countries, they 

 are less numerous than in extra-tropical climates ; they grow to a much 

 greater size and height, are tougher, more wiry, having broader leaves, 

 the flowers more elegant and downy ; nor do they usually grow crowd- 

 ed together in close compact tufts, but are scattered and wide asunder, 

 some species assuming an arborescent form, and attaining an amazing 

 altitude, as Panicum arhorescens, a most extraordinary grass, growing 

 in the woods of Hindostan : its culms or stems, although not so thick 

 as the little finger, grow so high as to o'ertop the loftiest trees, above 

 which they fonn, as it were, an aerial meadow, gracefully waving in 

 the balmy breeze. 



The Bamboo, as already intimated, is one of those surprising tropical 

 grasses, of which we have no parallel in temperate climates. An idea 

 of the grandeur and beauty which these magnificent arborescent gi'asses 

 impose upon the face of their native country, may perhaps be best col- 

 lected from the account of Captain Basil Hall, who, after travelling 

 during the night in a palanquin, from the bare table-land of Mysore, 

 towards the hilly and thickly wooded regions overhanging the Malabar 

 country, awoke in the morning, when, says he, " I found myself in the 

 midst of one of the most curious and magnificent scenes which my 

 eyes had ever beheld. It appeared as if I were travelling among the 

 clustered columns of some enormous and enchanted Gothic Cathedral, 

 compared to which the Minster of York, or the Cathedral at Winches- 

 ter, would have seemed mere baby-houses ; the ground extended on all 

 sides, as smooth and flat, and clear of underwood, as if the whole had 

 been paved with grave-stones. From this level surface rose on every 



