Ornamental Grass Gardens. 27 



springing, and so tenacious of life, accommodated in one in- 

 stance or other to almost every climate, soil, and situation, 

 affords to nature her most welcome clothing, and to the culti- 

 vator of the soil his chief riches. Nothing poisonous or inju- 

 rious is found among them. Their farinaceous seed supplies 

 man with the staff of life ; in wheat, barley, rice, oats, maize, 

 Holcus spicatus, Holcus cernuus, and in Poa abysinnica. The 

 Cynosurus cristatus, which supplies a most valuable herbage for 

 pasture, has culms too fibrous and wiry to be eaten by cattle ; 

 yet these sustain the seed of the plant until winter, and when 

 the snow covers and conceals every other kind of food, these 

 supply the smaller and even several of the larger birds with 

 the means of existence. 



The grasses constitute one of the most perfect natural 

 orders of plants, and although humble, and until lately, over- 

 looked by the general observer, consist of upwards of a thou- 

 sand perfectly distinct species, distinguished from each other 

 by their specific botanical characters, by the difference which 

 exists in the proportions of the constituents of the nutritive 

 matter afforded by each, by the different periods at which 

 their produce attains to perfection, and by the peculiar soils 

 and situations to which the different species are adapted. 

 The observation of these habits and properties, as they pre- 

 sent themselves in the progress of growth of the plants, will 

 be found to afford more amusing variety, and perhaps useful 

 and instructive occupation of time, than can be obtained from 

 the cultivation of any other distinct family of plants whatever. 



The flowers of the grasses are perfect, and are remarkable 

 for the simplicity and elegance which pervades their whole 

 structure ; they will be found to want only examination to 

 excite our admiration that so slender and simple a structure 

 should be productive of such important ends, and capable of 

 receiving upwards of a thousand clear specific shades of 

 variation without in the least affecting its primary essential 

 family character. 



As an example of the truth and beauty of the natural orders 

 of plants, the grasses afford the best illustration to the young 

 botanist. 



In the botanical investigation of the different species, a 

 high interest is kept up from a consideration of the various 

 properties and separate habits peculiar to each individual 

 species, yet all tending to one great and important end — the 

 support of animal life ; from the moth which lives on the Way 

 bennet (Hordeum murinum) to man himself, who, from 

 many species, draws support directly, and, in remote con- 

 sequences, from the whole tribe. Park in his travels, (Vol. i. 



