INTRODUCTION 
The grasses of our state, including both wild and cultivated species, 
may properly be regarded as our most important vegetation; for no other 
plants have such a wide and fundamental bearing on the stability and 
progress of our prosperity and civilization. There are about 4500 species 
of true grass plants known in the world. Of these about 180 species 
occur as native, introduced, or commonly cultivated in Ohio. 
The grasses, outside of the bamboo tribe, are all herbacous, peren¬ 
nials, biennals or annuals. The stem, sometimes called the culm, is of 
a very extreme type having exceedingly long internodes. It is either 
hollow or solid, but if hollow it is always closed at the nodes. The leaves 
are two-ranked and alternate. The leaf is also a highly specialized 
structure usually having a linear blade with a more or less prominent 
midrib and a large sheath which is open on the side opposite the blade. 
On the upper side of the leaf between the sheath and the blade there is 
often a permanent fringe of hairs or one or more scarious appendages 
called ligules. The roots of grasses are fibrous and together with the 
creeping rootstocks form the sod so characteristic of many species. 
Grasses are very generally distributed throughout the world, often 
forming extensive prairies, meadows, or plains, and furnishing great 
quantities of food for grazing animals. They are of importance in 
making an effective covering for large areas of the earth’s surface and 
in protecting the land from erosion. The grasses yielding food grains 
are called cereals and constitute the most substantial food plants for maM. 
The most important of these grasses are Indian corn, rice, wheat, rye, 
barley, oats, sorghum, millet and sugar cane. 
Aside from the general uses mentioned above certain species of 
grasses are employed in many other ways. Various species furnish 
material for basketry and for hats, mats, and braidwork; many species 
are used in paper making; some furnish various commercial starches, oils 
and cellulose used in the arts; some are used for fuel as for instance the 
cobs of Indian corn; certain species are used as soil binders on levees, in 
river bottoms, and on sand dunes; species belonging to the bamboo tribe 
are used extensively for building houses and fences, for furniture, fishing 
poles, and an endless assortment of small articles; various species like rye 
are used for thatching roofs; broom corn, a variety of sorghum, is used 
extensively in the manufacture of brooms and brushes; the peculiar 
fruits of job’s-tears are strung as beads; corn cobs are manufactured into 
tobacco pipes; some species are used in medicine; various species are 
cultivated as ornamental grasses in gardens and the panicles of some are 
employed for dry winter boquets. Many other uses might be mentioned. 
Grasses, of course, belong to the flowering plants, or Anthophyta. 
They are classified botanically as follows: 
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