THE GRASS TRIBE. ^55 



with in the first piece of waste ground. It is an 

 annual with an erect stem, about two or three feet 

 high, and covered all over with soft hairs. The stem 

 requires more than mere external examination. Strip 

 it of its leaves, so as to lay bare all its surface ; and 

 you will find it hard and thickened at every joint 

 where a leaf has been torn. Split it, and instead of 

 the solid centre of other plants, you will see that it is 

 hollow, and consists of nothing but a cylindrical shell 

 {Jig. 2.); at the joints, however, the sides of the 

 cylinder meet, and form a firm partition which com- 

 pletely separates one part of the stem from the other. 

 It is this structure that renders the Bamboo so useful 

 for forming cases to hold rolls of paper: in India 

 they cut a truncheon of a stout Bamboo, and scrape 

 away all the partitions except one ; it then becomes 

 a cylinder open at one end, where the partition is 

 destroyed, and closed at the other end. A short piece 

 of a Bamboo of the same diameter, having a complete 

 partition at one end, is then formed into a lid by scrap- 

 ing away its inside, and a capital case is produced 

 wdthout farther trouble. We sometimes see such 

 cases, as much as two feet in circumference. 



The leaves of Brome-grass are hairy, narrow and 

 sharp pointed at their lower end, which, notwith- 

 standing its breadth, is considered to be their stalk ; 

 it rolls round the stem, forming a kind of sheath, 

 which sometimes is not very easily unrolled. At the 

 upper end of the sheath you may remark a thin 

 white membrane, such as you have nowhere met 

 with before ; Botanists call such a membrane a ligula. 



