| CHAPTER I. | |
| PAGE | |
| The Vegetative Organs | [1] |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| The Vegetative Organs (continued) | [17] |
| CHAPTER III. | |
Grasses Classified according to their VegetativeCharacters | [39] |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| Anatomy and Histology | [62] |
| CHAPTER V. | |
Grasses Classified according to the Anatomical Charactersof the Leaf | [72] |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| Grasses in Flower | [83] |
| CHAPTER VII. | |
Grasses Grouped according to their Flowers and Inflorescences | [99] |
| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| The Fruit and Seed | [119] |
| CHAPTER IX. | |
| Classification of Grasses by the “Seeds" (Grains) | [135] |
| Bibliography | [175] |
| Index, Glossary and List of Synonyms | [177] |
CHAPTER I.
THE VEGETATIVE ORGANS.
That grasses are interesting and important plants is a fact recognised by botanists all the world over, yet it would appear that people in general can hardly have appreciated either their interest or their importance seeing how few popular works have been published concerning their structure and properties.
Apart from their almost universal distribution, and quite apart from the fascinating interest attaching to those extraordinary tropical giants, the Bamboos, West Indian Sugar-cane, the huge Reed-grasses of Africa, the Pampas-grasses of South America; and from the utilitarian value of the cereals—Maize, Rice, Wheat and other corn, &c.—everyone must be struck by the significance of the enormous tracts of land covered by grasses in all parts of the world, the Prairies of North America and the Savannahs of the South, the Steppes of Russia and Siberia, and the extensive tracts of meadow and pasture-land in Europe being but a few examples.
Although in the actual number of species the Grass family is by no means the largest in the vegetable kingdom, for there are far more Composites or Orchids, the curious sign of success in the struggle for existence comes out in grasses in that the number of individuals far transcends those of any other group, and that they have taken possession of all parts of the earth’s surface. Some species are cosmopolitan—e.g. our common Reed, Arundo Phragmites; while others—e.g. several of our native species of Festuca and Poa—are equally common in both hemispheres. On the whole the Tropics afford most species and fewest individuals, and the temperate regions most individuals.
Considering their multifarious uses as fodder and food, for brewing, weaving, building and a thousand other purposes, it is perhaps not too much to say that if every other species of plant were displaced by grasses of all kinds—as many indeed gradually are—man would still be able to supply his chief needs from them.
The profound significance of the grass-carpet of the earth, however, comes out most clearly when we realise the enormous amounts of energy daily stored up in the countless myriads of green blades as they fix their carbon. By decomposing the carbon-dioxide of the air in their chlorophyll apparatus by the action of the radiant energy of the sun, they build up starches and sugars and other plant-substances, which are then consumed and turned into flesh by our cattle and sheep and other herbivorous animals, and so furnish us with food. The whole theory of agriculture turns on this pivot, and the by no means small modicum of truth in such sayings as “All flesh is grass,” and that the man who can make two blades of grass grow where one grew before deserves well of his country, obtains a larger significance when it is realised that the only real gain of wealth is that represented by the storage of energy from without which comes to us by the action of green leaves waving in the sunshine.