HANDBOOK OF GRASSES 
Field-work: 
A FEW suggestions about field-work will serve as an introduction 
to Chapter IJ., which deals exclusively with the grasses of our own 
country. The identification of the numerous species may be a 
difficult matter, or it may be comparatively easy ; this will largely 
depend upon the way in which the tyro applies himself to the task. 
The first essential is to get a clear understanding of the technical 
terms employed. Chapter I., on Structure, should be attentively 
perused, and afterwards referred to in every case of doubt. We 
purposely omit a glossary, because its meagreness would be likely 
to mislead. 
In describing the British species, we have grouped them accord- 
ing to their habitats, each group consisting of about a dozen 
species, and these are described:in the order of their frequency 
and abundance (the rarities always last), precisely as one may 
expect to meet with them on botanical excursions. It is true that 
some species do not confine themselves to any particular habitat ; 
but these, with few exceptions, are only the grasses of our meadows 
and pastures, and we start with this group in order that the begin- 
ner may familiarize himself with them first and be able to recog- 
nise them anywhere. Most of the other groups are perfectly 
exclusive, ¢.g. the maritime, woodland and alpine grasses. The 
species to be dealt with in any given habitat are thus restricted 
to a small number, and still further limitation is afforded by the 
flowering time of each species, more especially if the study be 
commenced in spring or early summer. A midsummer meadow 
bewilders the novice with its wealth of inflorescence, but in early 
summer only a few flowering species claim notice. Poa annua 
(frontispiece) is the first grass that will be found in flower on every 
bit of waste ground, in gardens, by roadsides and footpaths ; it 
begins to shoot up its panicles towards the end of March—quite a 
month in advance of any other species, one or two rare ones 
excepted. In meadows the spike-like panicles of Anthoxanthum 
odoratum (fig. 13) and Alopecurus pratensis (fig. 36) are abundant 
during the month of May, while the only woodland grasses that 
H. G. B 
