CHAPTER I. 



THE VEGETATIVE OEGANS. 



That grasses are interesting and important plants is 

 a fact recognised by botanists all the world over, yet it 

 would appear that people in general can hardly have 

 appreciated either their interest or their importance 

 seeing how few popular works have been published 

 concerning their structure and properties. 



Apart from their almost universal distribution, and 

 quite apart from the fascinating interest attaching to 

 those extraordinary tropical giants, the Bamboos, West 

 Indian Sugar-cane, the huge Reed-grasses of Africa, the 

 Pampas-grasses of South America ; and from the utilitarian 

 value of the cereals — Maize, Rice, Wheat and other 

 com, &c. — everyone must be struck by the significance 

 of the enormous tracts of land covered by grasses in all 

 parts of the world, the Prairies of North America and 

 the Savannahs of the South, the Steppes of Russia and 

 Siberia, and the extensive tracts of meadow and pasture- 

 land in Europe being but a few examples. 

 u w. 1 



