Grasses 159 
And the lower part of the grass-stem, which Na- 
ture thus reénforces, is just the portion subjected 
to the greatest strains when winds sway the head 
of blossom above. 
The Indian corn, the giant among native grasses, 
with its large leaves and long slender stalk, seems 
peculiarly likely to fall a victim to the wind. And 
its fibro-vascular bundles, which are water and 
food conduits, might, one would think, be squeezed 
or crushed by the swaying of the breeze-rocked 
stem. A beautiful provision is made against either 
of these mischances. 
Each bundle, in the first place, is invested by a 
strong, tough bundle-sheath. And being thus well 
protected individually, the bundles are used, col- 
lectively, as a means to reénforce the stem. For 
the course of each from the ground to the leaf 
is a long arch, curving outward. So each bun- 
dle with its sheath acts as a strut, and if the bun- 
dles interweave, as they do most beautifully, in 
some grasses and rushes they resemble the net- 
work of girders in an iron bridge. 
A like adaptation enables the palmetto to sup- 
port its heavy crown, despite the winds which 
blow so lustily in southern latitudes. 
The gales which bend but do not snap the 
