76 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. 
but no one else had found it, so that after a time it was 
placed on the doubtful list and then finally dropped out 
altogether. 
The Grass Family is one of the royal families of 
plants, and one of the largest, probably being surpassed 
in the number of species by the Composite and Le- 
guminosz only. It is also widely diffused over all the 
habitable parts of the globe, having no limits except 
those which bound vegetation in general, reaching the 
outposts of flowering plants both in the polar regions 
and near the snow-line on high mountains. About three 
thousand five hundred species have been, already dis- 
covered and described, some of which are characteristic 
of the tropics, some of Alpine heights; but no part of 
the world is more highly favored in the variety and 
social character of its grasses than the north temperate 
zone, where, owing to a uniform rainfall, the grasses 
unite to form extended areas of turf covering large 
meadows. In tropical regions the turf disappears, and 
the grasses become larger, more isolated like other 
plants, fewer in the number of individuals, but with 
broader leaves and more showy flowers. 
The aspect of Nature is determined largely by this 
family. The great grass regions form characteristic 
parts of each of the grand divisions, such as the great 
steppes of central and western Asia, the great eastern 
plain of Europe, the plains of central Africa, the llanos 
