568 
tMfe tftOPtOAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[February i, 1892. 
any way ? Now mother, I know you are going to tell 
me bow my cow likes it, and how I like her milk ; 
but that don't alter the fact that grass is always in 
the wrong place and somebody has work to get it ont 
of the way. 1 believe the world could do very well 
withont the grass family." 
" I know a little girl who would be the first to obj* ct 
if all the grass family were banished," said Mrs 
Winter. 
" Try me and see, mother." 
"Very well, shall we begin now?" 
"Yes ma'am, as soon as I get my breid and butter." 
"Here is the butter, but I cannot give you the 
bread ; it belongs to the large family you want to 
banish." 
" What mother, this light bread ?" 
" Certainly, wheat is one of the grasses," 
"Well, then, I'll take a muffin." 
" Not now ; the muffin is made of corn meal, ar.d 
corn is another member of the grass family." 
" Dear me, I don't like brown bread, but I'll have 
to fall back on that." 
"No; the brown bread is made of rye flour. I 
have often heard yon admire the fields of ryegraas." 
Madge's face fell. She was very hungry after her 
scuffle with the grass among the flowers, and now it 
seemed the troublesome thing was about to get tho 
best of her after all. With a doubtful look she handed 
her plate for a spoonful of rice ; but again her mother 
refused ; it was one of the banished grasses. 
" Well, mother, you always get the best of me. 
I'll take back all I said. I begin to think we could 
not live without grass ; but of course, I did not knew 
Buch things as wheat and corn were grasEes." 
"They are the seed or fruit of grass." 
"But, mother, they do not look alike. Why do 
you class them together ? What is the coat-ot-arms 
of this family?" 
" In the first place, all these stems are culms— that is, 
jointed and hollow between the jointp. Second, the 
leaves have open sheaths enclosing the stem at their 
base ; and they are ' two-ranked,' the second leaf com- 
ing out half-way around the stem above the first, and 
the third leaf exactly above the first, the fourth above 
the second and so on; and all have parallel vein-. 
Third, each flower is enclosed in a glume or husk. 
Fourth, they are all endogenous." 
"That means inside growing," said Madge. 
"Yes; there are no layers, but the wood and pith 
is all mixed in together as you will see if you cut across 
a cornstalk. 
"Why, mother, all the bread we eat is made from 
the grass family." 
" Yes, and the oatmeal, wheat germ, hominy, grits, 
barley ; and besides that they furnish nearly all the 
food for cattle. The great loads of hay, the barns 
full of timothy and orchard-grass, all come from your 
banished family. And there is one you are especially 
fond of, and drink its juice as readily as Daisy does 
that from the sweet hay." 
"I may chew gum, but I never chew grass stems 
for their juice, mother." 
" How about the sugar-cane ?'' 
" Of course, I suck thejuice from that. Surely that is 
not a member of the family ?" 
"Look nt the coat of arms and see." 
"Yes; I know it has a jointed stem with wood and 
pith mixed together. The leives grow in two ranks, 
and are parallel veined, and form a sheath around the 
stem. Is the root fibrous ?" 
" Yes ; there is no long tap roct, and the flowers 
ate enclosed in little, scaly bracts, or glumea. 
This cane is an important or.e of the grasses. 
Nearly all the best tugar of the world comes from it. 
Your c.indy-8hops would have to close, and no more 
cane-syrup for that sweet tooth of yours. No more 
pop-corn balls, either." 
" What, mother, how ia that ?" 
" Only that the sugar comes from the cai e and the 
pop-ooin like your bread-corn, is first cousin " 
" The corn and cane are the largest of the grass 
family; and they not, mother?" 
'' No ; there ia a distant relative in tropical couu- 
(lies wbioh f^rowi mnoli larger, the bamboo. It runs 
up from fifty to eighty feet high, and the hollow- 
jointed stem is ten inches thick— as large aa your body. 
It is a beautiful plant and very useful." 
^' Do they grind up the seed for bread as we do corn ?" 
' No ;* only the young, tender shoots are used for 
food, but almost everything is made of the stem— 
housee, water-pipes, umbrellas, fishing rods, baskets, 
hats, furniture, ropes, and paper, and so on." 
" Ob, yes, and I have seen the walking-canes made of 
bamboo. Which of all the grasses is the most useful ?" 
" Rice furnishes food to more people than any, for 
the people of China and India live almost entirely on 
rice. Corn and wheat are used more in this country." 
" Do none of the grasses have prettv flowers ? " 
"No, perhaps not; but the feathery plumes of the 
pampas grassps are as beautiful as flowers." 
"Why mother," said Madge, as she rnade a survey 
of the table, " not one thing on this tea table but 
what is made from the grass family except the butter ; 
and I suppose you would ttU me that Daisy could not 
give us that b ng if there were no grass. Well, I'll not 
say anything more against the grass family, only I 
wish it bore pretty flowers of its own, and did not take 
such delight in choking grnudmother's." 
" The plants that feed the world do not need beauti- 
ful flowers to make them valuable any more than the 
great oak, and elm, and chestnut trees do. And if the 
grass did not spring up so easily, food would be har- 
der to get. Flowers are a luxury, and all luxuries must 
be paid for in work or money. When you grow weary 
of pul ing the grfen blade? from among your flowers, 
you must remember that; and instead of despising 
the persisteMt grasp, respect it the more because it so 
freely and abundantly gives itself for the food of the 
world. Think of a world without this grass family. 
The cattle upon a thousand hills would he dcwn 
famishing; flowers might blossom, fruits ripen, but 
without bread, the .staff of life is gone, and man would 
soon lose strength, and hope, and life."— U. S. Paper. 
<> — _ 
CINNAMOMUM— CINNAMON. 
The inner bark of the shoots of Cinnaiiomum Zey 
lanicum, Breyne (Ceyion cinnamon); or the bark of 
the shouts of one or more undetermined species of 
Cinnamomum grown in China (Chinese tinnamon). 
Nat. Order Lanracea. Generic character. Plowers 
hermaphrodite or polygamous, panicled or fascicle'!, 
naked. Calyx six-cleft, with the limb deciduous. Fer- 
tile stamens, nine in three rows ; the inner three with 
two sessile glands at the base ; anthers four-celled, the 
three inner turned outwards ; three capita' e abortive 
stamens next the centre. Fruit seated in a cup-like 
calyx. Leaves ribbed. Leaf buds not scaly (Lindley) 
Habitat, Ceylon ; cultivated. 
Oevlon Cinnamon is in long, closely-rolled quills, 
composed of eight or more layers of bark of the thick, 
neas of paper ; pale yellowish-brown ; outer unrfnce 
smooth marked with wavy lines; inner surface 8ca'C(>ly 
frtriite , fracture splintery ; odor fragrant; tasto sweet 
and w;armly aromatic. 
Chinese Cinnamon (cassia bark) is in quills about 
one-twenty-fifth of an inch (one millimeter) or more in 
thickness; nearly deprived of the cork layei ; brown ; 
outer surface somewhat rough ; fracture nearly smoatb; 
odor and taste analogous to that of Ceylon cinnamon, 
but less delicate. 
Ceylon Cinnamon.— The bark was origini.l'y 
collected from the tree in the wild state, but the 
Dutch introduced tbe practice of eultivating it. 
The principal cinnamon gardens are in the vicinity of 
Colombo. The cinnamon harvest commences in May 
and continues until late in October. The tree men- 
tioned above is varioble in size, but is usually of small 
stature. In favourable situations they a. lain the height 
of five or six feet in six or seven years.f Thebarkis 
* Error: in times of scarcity bamboo seed have 
been eaten in Indij. — Ed. T. A. 
t The cultivated cinnamon is coppiced, and many of 
the shoots make a growth of over six feet in eighteen 
months. — Ed. 2'. A- 
