S68 
THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTUR18T. 
[February i, 1892 
any nay ? Now mother, I know you are going to tell 
me how my cow likea it, and how I like her milk ; 
but that don’t alter the fact that grsaa is always in 
the wrong place and somebody has work to get it ont 
of the nay. 1 believe the world could do very well 
witbont the graaa family.” 
“ I know a little girl who would bo the first to object 
if all the grass family wore banished,'’ said Mrs 
Winter. 
Try mo and see, mother.” 
“Very well, shall we begin uowf” 
“Yes ma’am, as soon as 1 got my bread and butter.” 
“Here is the butter, bnt 1 cannot give you the 
bread) it belongs to the large family you want to 
banish.” 
•• What mother, this light bread f” 
“ Certainly, wheat is one of the grasses,” 
“Well, then, I'll take a muffin.” 
“ Not now ; the muffin is made of corn meal, and 
com is another member of the grass family.” 
“Dear me, I don’t like brown broad, but I’ll have 
to fall back on that.” 
“ No ; the brown bread is made of rye flour. I 
have often beard yon admire the fields of ryegrass.” 
Madge’s face fell She was very hungry aRer her 
souffle with the grass among the flowers, and now it 
seemed the troublesome thing was about to get the 
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 tbiuk we could 
not live without grass ; but of course, I did not knew 
such things as wheat aud corn were grasses.” 
“ They are tbo seed or fruit of grass.” 
“But, mother, they do not look alike. Why do 
you class them together ? What is the ooat-of-arms 
of this family?” 
“ In the first place, all these stems are culms— that is, 
jointed and hollow between the joints. Second, the 
leaves have open shoaths enolosiug the stem at their 
base ; and they are ’ two.ranked,’ the second leaf com- 
ing out half-way aronnd the stem above tbo first, and 
the third leaf easctly above the first, the fourth above 
the second and so on; and all have parallel veins. 
Third, each flower is enclosed in a glumo or husk. 
Fonrth, they are all endogenous.” 
“That means insi<le growing,” said Madge. 
“ Yea ; the re aro im layers, but the » ood and pith 
it all mixed in together as you will see if you out across 
• cornstalk. 
“ Why, mother, all the bread we rat is made from 
the grass family.” 
“ Yes, snd the oatmeal, wheat germ, hominy, grits, 
barley ; and besides that they fnenish nearly all tbo 
food for oattle. The great loads of hay, the barns 
full of timothy and orcliard-grass, all come from ^our 
banished family. And there is one yon are espooially 
fond of, aud drink its juice aj readily as Daisy does 
that from the aweet hay.” 
“I may chew gum, but I never chew graaa stems 
for their juice, mother.” 
“ How about the sugar-cane ?” 
“ Of oourso, I suck the juice from th it. Surely that is 
not a member of the family P” 
“Txiok at the coat of arms and see.” 
“Yes; I know it has a joiuted atom with wood and 
pith mixed togotber. The leives grow io two ranks, 
and are parallel veined, and form a sheath around tbo 
stem. Is the root fibrons ?“ 
“ Yes ; there is no long tap rest, and the flowers 
are enclosed in little, scaly bracts, or glumes. 
This oana is *n important o o of the grasscB. 
Nearly all tho best sugar of the world comes from it, 
Yonr candy-shops would have to close, and no morn 
caue-sytup for that sweet tooth of yours. No more 
pop-corn balls, either.” 
“ What, mother, how is that ? 
“ Only that the sugar comes from the cone and the 
pop-corn like your bread- corn, is first cousin ” 
“ The corn and oano are the largest of tho grass 
family ; and they not, mother ?” 
“ No ; them is a distant relative in tropical coun- 
triea which growl much larger, tho bamboo. It runs 
np from fifty to eighty feet high, and the hollow- 
jointed stem is ten inches thick— as large as your body. 
It is a beautiful plant and very useful.” 
“ Do they grind up the soeil.for bread as we do corn ?” 
“No;* only the young, tender shoots are used for 
food, but almost everything is mode of the stem — 
houses, water-pipes, ambrollas, fishing rods, baskets, 
hats, furnitnre, ropes, snd paper, aud so on.” 
“Ob, yes, ami I have seen the walking-canee made of 
bamboo. Which oi all the grasses is the most useful ?” 
“ llico furnishes food to more people than any, for 
the people of China and India live almost entirely on 
rico. Corn aud wheat are used more in this country.” 
“ Do nono of tho grasses have pretty flowers ” 
“No, perhaps not; but the feathery plumes of the 
pampas grasses aro as beautiful as flowers.” 
“Why mother,” said Madge, as she made a survey 
of the table, “ not one thing on this tea table but 
what is made from the grass family except the butler ; 
hud I suppose you would tell me that Daisy could not 
give us that I ngif there were no grass. Well, I’ll not 
ray anything more against the grass family, only I 
wish it bore pretty flowers of its own, and did not take 
such delight in choking grandmother’s.” 
“ The plants ihat feed the world do not need beauti- 
ful flowers to make them valuable any mure than tho 
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 aro a luxnry, and all Inxaries must 
bo paid for io work or money. When you grow weary 
of pulling tho greon blades from among yonr flowers, 
you mast remcmQcr that; and instead of despising 
the persistent grass, respect it the more broausoit so 
freely and abundantly gives itself (or the food of the 
world. Think of a world without this grass family. 
The oattle upon a thousand hills wonid lie down 
famishing; flowors might blossom, fruits ripen, but 
without bread, the staff of life is gone, and man would 
soon lose strength, snd hope, and life.” — U, S. I’aptr. 
♦ 
OINNAMOMUM— CINNAMON. 
’The inner bark of the shoots of Cinnatiomum Zey- 
lanicum, Breyno (Ceyion cinnamon); or the bark of 
the shoots of one or more undetermined spooiei of 
Cinnamomum grown in China (Chinese cinnamon). 
Nat. Urder Lanracea. Qenetio charaeler, Flowers 
hermaphrodite or polygamous, panie'ed or fascicle'', 
naked. Calyx six-cleft, with the limb deciduous. Fer- 
tile stamens, nine in three rows ; the inner thn e with 
two sessile glands at the base ; anthers foor-celled, tlie 
throe inner turned outwards ; three capila'o alortivo 
stamens next the centre. Fruit seated in a cup-like 
calyx. Leaves ribbed Leaf buds not scaly (Lindley). 
Habitat, Ceylon ; cultivated. 
OEvtoN Cinnamon is in long, cloaely-rollod quids, 
compoied of eight or more layers of bark of the thick- 
nrss of paper; pale yullowuh-brown ; outer snrfoce 
smeo'h marked with wavy lines; inner sorfsoe scarcely 
et-iatc , fracture splintery ; odor fragrant; taste sweet 
aud w;armly aromatic. 
Chinrse Cinnamon (oaatia bark) is in quills about 
ODC-lweuty-iifth of an inch (one millimeter) or more in 
thickness; nearly deprived of the cork layer ; brown ; 
outer surface somewhat rough ; fraoture nearly smo ith; 
odur and taste analogous to that of Ceylon cinnamon, 
but less delicate. 
Ceylon Cinnamon, — The bark was originally 
collected from (he tree in the wild state, but tlie 
Dutoh introduced the practice of sultivating it. 
The principal cinnsmon gardens are in the vicinity ef 
Colombo. The cinnamon b-arveat oommi-noes in May 
and ciint.uuea until lute in October. The tree men- 
tioned above is variable in size, but is usually of small 
stature. In favourable sitnations they nitniii the height 
of five or six feel in six or seven years j- The bark is 
• Error: in times of scarcity bvmboo seed have 
been eaten in India. — Eu. T. A. 
t The cultivated cinnamon is coppiced, and many of 
the shoots makes growth of over six feet in eighteen 
months. — E d. 7’. A- 
