190 THE GBASSES OF TENNESSEE. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



CANE — COUCH GEASS — VELVET — LAWN GEASS OE MEADOW 

 GEASS — BAELEY — TALL MEADOW OAT GEASS — WOOD 

 HAIE GEASS. 



CANS — (Aru/ndinaria macrosperma.) 



Glumes concave, awnless, email, lower smaller than the upper; scales 

 three, longer than the ovary; stamens three, stems woody. Flowers in 

 March and April, leaves linear, green on both sides, smooth, spikelets 

 from seven to ten flowered, purple, smooth. 



When the first settlers came to Tennessee, the whole face 

 of the country was covered with Cane, and while it existed, 

 afforded abundant pasturage to stock of all kinds, both 

 winter and summer. The shoots of young cane are both 

 succulent and nutritious. Not only are they eaten by beasts, 

 but, when young and tender, they are boiled and eaten by 

 man. In 1812 and again in 1864 a famine was averted in 

 India by the opportune seeding of the Cane, the people 

 gathering the seeds and boiling and eating them like rice. 



The Cane requires about thirty years to mature and form 

 the seed, then the plant dies, and it again springs up from 

 the roots. It is propagated by suckers from the roots, and 

 it is several years before it is strong enough to serve the 

 purpose of fishing-poles. Its stem has a coating of almost 

 pure silex, and was used by the Aborigines for knives, cups, 

 fans, pipe-stems, fishing-poles, spear-handles, fishing-spears, 

 chairs, tables, bedding, wigwams, etc., etc.. Like all other 

 grasses, it grows from the centre, and though it has gra- 

 minaceous affinities in all its internal structure, it partakes of 

 the nature of a tree in size, as it often attains a height of 

 of forty, and even of fifty feet. 



It belongs to the same family with the bamboo of the 



