A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GRASSLS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 384, 9 February 1880, Page 2

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GRASSLS.

From the KZ. Country Journal.

Of all the numerous and extensive orders or divisions into which plants are divided by botanists, that known' as the Graminaceae, or grass order, is by far the most important to man. There are no Jess than 4000 known species or kinds of plants included under' this: order, all of which are in some way capable of administering to the wants of man. To it belong the cultivated grains, wheat;'barley, oats, rye, rice, maize, and millet. The properties of the order are nutritive in a very remarkable degree. The importance of wheat flour iBB.o-.welf known to every one that it is scarcely necessary to allude.to it here. Many other grasses, however, yield flour equal in nutritive properties to wheat but deficient: in whiteness-or in quantity. Sugar,.again, that, great desideratum.of all nations, isijiielded by nearly all species of grasses, but most abundantly by the su«ar cane; Saccharum. • Many of the drinks of civilised countries are obtained from the cereal grasses by fermentation or distillation, such "as ale and porter from barley, and the spirituous liquors whisky, gin, and rum front barley, oats, or the sugar cane. Many" grasses yield essential oils, particularlythespeciesof andropogon and anatherum. Of: all kngwn- grasses there is probably. not : a single one'proved to be injurious, the supposed b«d properties of darel being now known to beoaused by a fungus which infests" the seeds. l|e sides their food-producing properties, grasses have many other economical m —for instance,: the making-of ladies' be nets and straw 'hats, the making of coi age and matting, the thatching and ev the building of houses, in some/parts' the world. It is proposed in.the'se she chapters to give an account of, all t principal sorts of. grasses, more partit larlj of. those wbjch can be cultivated our climate. '. As we believe -that burp: tures may be much improved by theiin.ti duction of new-kinds from the. vario temperate climes, we shall give as coi plete information as possible respecti the merits of the grasses esteemed in'oth countries, but as yet unknown:to o cultivators.. Grasses differ so much from most oth plants and are so: much alike,: .that a person acquainted, with-oats, ryegrass,any of the common-kinds, should have difficulty in recognising grass as such, b in,order to make this short history complete as possible we shall here gi tliol characters which distinguish t grasses from-all other-orders of the ve< tabl&kingdom. '; Grasses areherbaceo plants, with round usually hollow-jbiht stems.; / The leaves are narrow aridialti nate, havin'g.-a split sheath at their.ba, which frequently has a small mem'braho tongue-like organ ; at its summit -called lingule. The flowers, which are borne•( a long or short, usiully leafy stem,'csi}( a culm,:-are... either.. solitary, or .together on a short axis, forming a Bplki ■let or locusta;. .These spikelets, are'eithe* staikless, alternate, and two a simple-axis; 'called a rachis, and forming or borne on long slender stalks" forming a panicle, which is tho commonform. The flowers are considered; as composed of a .series of bract's 1 j "': the outer; called glumes, alternate, often, unequal, usually two in number, 3ometimes.one, or more rarely, altogether absent; the next, called pale 3, (generally two, alternate, and the lower or outermost of these two pales, simple or undivided j the upper having two ribs is supposed to be formed of two pales united. Sometimes these pales. are altogether absent. The glumes either enclose only one flojser, as in the foxtail grass, or numerous ones, as in the wheat, Small scale-like bodies are frequently found with the. pales; but their nature is not definitely known, The essenti: 1 organs of reproduction are inclosed within the pales, and consist as in other plants, of the stamens or male organs, and styles.or females 'organs. The stamens vary in number from one to six, : and are placed at the base of the ovary. - The ovary is simple and one celled, containing one ovule, which ultimately becomes the seed. The styles-are two in numbes on the summit of the ovary, and have feathery stimas, to which the pollen from the authers or pollen holders of the stamens is applied in order the fertilize■the wary. The fruit is generally inclosed in the persistent pales, but is sometimes naked. Grasses are arranged under families or genera, each gen lis : consisting ,of such speeies as greatly resemble each other in their.floral organs. Per instance,- the. various kinds of fescue grasses, such as' i.he sheep's fescue, the hard fescue,. the seaside fescue, &c. , form the genus Fest uca. For .the sake of easy reference such genera as bear a marked resemblance to ■each other are grouped together as airibe. For jnstiince,..tlie numerous genera allied toFestuca-, such as.the meadow grasses, Poa, the-brome grasses Bromus, the cocksfoot Dactylis, and many-/ others form 'the-: tribe'Festuceae. There ate thirteen of such tribes, the first of which will be taken up in the next iclmpter; Grasses are found in.all parts of the. 'world, but are most numerous in the r.orth temperate zone. In the tropics they:increase in size but diminish in numbers.? r ■■; : ;