

THE GRASSES OF MAINE. 



By PROF. C. H. FERNALD, Maine State College. Orono. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The grass family is, without doubt, of far greater importance to 

 mankind than all the other families of plants combined ; for, in- 

 cluding as it does all the cereals, as wheat, corn, oats, rye. barley, 

 rice, etc., as well as sugar-cane, sorghum, bamboo, and the greater 

 part of the forage plants which serve as food for grazing animals, 

 we may well place this family far in advance of all others from an 

 economic point of view. 



When w r c remember that all our bread-stuffs come directly from 

 this family, and that our meat comes from animals which feed di- 

 rectly or indirectly on the grasses, we can appreciate the profound 

 utterance of the inspired writer when he says, "All flesh is grass." 



If all the members of the grass family were swept from the sur- 

 face of the earth, never to reappear, we can scarcely foretell what 

 fatal consequences would follow. It is very doubtful if man and 

 his domesticated animals could hold their own in the struggle for 

 existence if compelled to seek their subsistence entirely from other 

 plants. 



The grasses are the most universally diffused over the globe of 

 any of the flowering plants, for there is no part of the world free 

 from snow, even for a short period of time, where they do not occur, 

 and in nearly all they form a leading feature of the landscape. It 

 has been estimated that there are not far from six thousand species 

 of grasses, of which nearly ninety are already known to be indige- 

 nous or to have been introduced into Maine. Omitting the cereals, 

 there are still over eighty species of the grass family already dis- 

 covered growing wild or in cultivation in this State. Probably not 



