(8) 



broom-corn, though really true grasses, are generally classed 

 with the artificials. 



To one not acquainted with the subject, the facility with 

 which grass scatters and diffuses itself is very surprising. 

 But it seems that so important a vegetation should not be 

 subject to the fancies or caprices of man. The seeds are 

 prepared in such a way, that they are self-sowers. It is 

 this remarkable facility of transportation that has given rise 

 to the surmise of many, that it grows by spontaneous gene- 

 ration. Some of the seeds have hooks, and by these they 

 fasten to any passing animal and are carried for miles. 

 Others lie undigested in the crops of birds, or maws of 

 animals, and are scattered with the dejectse. Snows gather 

 them on the hill- sides and bear them far away on the melt- 

 ing torrents, and scatter them, mayhap, along some foreign 

 shore. The air also assists in this, and lifts them on its 

 wings and they fly in all directions. When grass once 

 stands, even if a passing beast cuts off its annual supply of 

 seed, its rhizomes or creeping roots thrust their tender 

 spongioles through the yielding soil, and thus many a field 

 is clothed with verdure. And besides, many of the grasses 

 are perennials, and though torn and tramped by stock, they 

 gather new strength for another year, and push on their 

 foothold. 



There is a large class resembling the grasses in general 

 appearance, but very different in the physical structure and 

 nutritive elements. I allude to the rushes and sedges, of 

 which there are over five hundred varieties growing in the 

 United States, and eighty of them are found in Tennessee. 

 What is commonly known as " broomsedge" is not a sedge 

 at all, but a true grass, while the well-known " seed-tick " 

 grass is a sedge. 



There is a simple method of separating the grasses from 

 these rushes and sedges, which will be briefly stated. 



The sheath of sedges is a hollow tube, through which the 

 ems pass, and it cannot be removed without tearing it 



