12 THE GRASSES OF MAINE. 



Stamen. The male organs of a flower, including the anther and 



filament. 

 Staminate. Having stamens only. 

 Sterile. Imperfect flowers not producing seed. 

 Style. That portion of the pistil which bears the stigmas at the top. 

 Truncate. Abruptly cut off at the apex. 



The Composition of Grasses. 



It might be supposed that a chemical analysis of a grass would 

 give an accurate idea of its value as a fodder, but there are so many 

 conditions affecting the matter, that conclusions drawn from an 

 analysis must be taken with great caution. The same species of 

 grass when grown in different parts of the country, or even on dif- 

 ferent soils in the same region, often gives very different percentages 

 of the substances of which it is composed, and the analyses of the 

 same species grown in Europe differ widely from those of this 

 country. 



Grasses, like other plants, are made up of cells or sack-like bodies 

 which are exceedingly small and can be seen only with high powers 

 of the microscope. These cells are at first more or less globular, 

 and in some parts of the plant always remain so, while in others 

 they are more or less compressed and become twelve-sided bodies. 

 A large number of the cells become much elongated or spindle- 

 shaped, forming the woody tissue or woody fiber of the plant. 

 These all consist, at first, of a thin, delicate vegetable membrane, 

 composed of a substance called cellulose, enclosing an almost trans- 

 parent semifluid substance called the protoplasm. "This protoplasm 

 is the living portion of the plant, the active vital thing which gives 

 to it its sensibility to heat and cold, of appropriating food and in- 

 creasing its size." Its exact chemical composition has not yet been 

 determined, but it is known to be an albuminous, watery substance 

 combined with a small quantit} 7 of ash or mineral matter. "It is 

 probably a complex mixture of chemical compounds and not a single 

 compound. It contains, at some time or another, all the chemical 

 constituents of plants. Oil, granules of starch, and other organic 

 substances are frequently present in it, but they are to be regarded 

 as products rather than proper constituents of protoplasm." 

 (Bessey). It is known to contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and 



