XVlll 



heath, mead, and jungle, the condition of the atmosphere, the 

 moisture, dryness, and even the temperature of climates; but, 

 glancing at the subject only on the broad scale, the Grasses occupy 

 a paramount position among their kindred forms. Owing to the 

 social habit of growth of many kinds, they frequently cover the 

 land to the almost total exclusion of other plants ; immense tracts 

 of country in both hemispheres, and in every zone of vegetation, 

 presenting them alone as their grand characteristic feature. Even 

 where apparently their- absolute dominion is superseded, their slender 

 stems and leaves are still seen, occupying every available opening 

 between the broader masses of foliage, the exuberance of which 

 seems to threaten annihilation to the bold intruder. The Grasses 

 are indeed deserving of the title fancifully bestowed upon them by 

 the great Swedish naturalist — they are the true plebeians of the 

 vegetable kingdom, and may be said to constitute the broad under- 

 stratum of its vast society of flowering plants; not as species, 

 numerous as these may be, but in their countless myriads of indi- 

 viduals, and their extensive range of habitat from the equator to 

 the poles — from the scorching sea-borders of tropical lands to the 

 highest alpine limit of enduring frost. So circumstanced, in the 

 plan of utilitarian Nature their influence has no more circum- 

 scribed bound than their distribution, nor is it less varied, — a fact 

 which will be sufficiently exemplified in the following short history 

 of British genera and species. 



In describing some of the species, the term viviparous occasionally 

 occurs, applied to certain variations of structure to which they are 

 liable ; and, although explained in the Glossary, the peculiarity it 

 denotes is an adaptation so curious and striking to the ordinary 

 observer, as to require a few general remarks in elucidation. A 

 Grass is said to be viviparous, or producing alive, when, in place of 

 flowers and seeds, it bears small leafy buds, which eventually drop 

 ofi", and, rooting where they fall, produce young plants. The ap- 

 pearance of the Grass, in this case, is so much altered from its 



