Chapter I: Preface

The following pages have been written in the hope that they may be used in the field and in the laboratory with specimens of our ordinary grasses in the hand. Most of the exercises involved demand exact study by means of a good hand-lens, a mode of investigation far too much neglected in modern teaching. The book is not intended to be a complete manual of grasses, but to be an account of our common native species, so arranged that the student may learn how to closely observe and deal with the distinctive characters of these remarkable plants when such problems as the botanical analysis of a meadow or pasture, of hay, of weeds, or of “seed” grasses are presented, as well as when investigating questions of more abstract scientific nature.

I have not hesitated, however, to introduce general statements on the biology and physiological peculiarities of grasses where such may serve the purpose of interesting the reader in the wider botanical bearings of the subject, though several reasons may be urged against extending this part of the theme in a book intended to be portable, and of direct practical use to students in the field.

I have pleasure in expressing my thanks to Mr R. H. Biffen for carefully testing the classification of “seeds” on pp. 135-174, and to him and to Mr Shipley for kindly looking over the proofs; also to Mr Lewton-Brain, who has tested the classification of leaf-sections put forward on pp. 72-82, and prepared the drawings for Figs. 21-28.

That errors are entirely absent from such a work as this is perhaps too much to expect: I hope they are few, and that readers will oblige me with any corrections they may find necessary or advantageous for the better working of the tables.

The list of the chief authorities referred to, which students who desire to proceed further with the study of grasses should consult, is given at the end.

I have pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to the following works for illustrations which are inserted by permission of the several publishers:--Stebler’s _Forage Plants_ (published by Nutt & Co.), Nobbe’s _Handbuch der Samenkunde_ (Wiegandt, Hempel and Parey, Berlin), Harz’s _Landwirthschaftliche Samenkunde_ (Paul Parey, Berlin), Strasburger and Noll’s _Text-Book of Botany_ (Macmillan & Co.), Figuier’s _Vegetable World_ (Cassell & Co.), Lubbock’s _Flowers, Fruits and Seeds_ (Macmillan & Co.), Kerner’s _Natural History of Plants_ (Blackie & Son), and Oliver’s _First Book of Indian Botany_ (Macmillan & Co.).

It is impossible to avoid the question of variation in work of this kind, and students will without doubt come across instances--especially in such genera as _Agropyrum_, _Festuca_, _Agrostis_ and _Bromus_--of small variations which show how impossible it is to fit the facts of living organisms into the rigid frames of classification. It may possibly be urged that this invalidates all attempts at such classifications: the same argument applies to all our systems, though it is perhaps less disastrous to the best Natural Systems which attempt to take in large groups of facts, than to artificial systems selected for special purposes. Perhaps something useful may be learned by showing more clearly where and how grasses vary, and I hope that the application to them of these preliminary tests may elucidate more facts as we proceed.

H. M. W.

CAMBRIDGE, _April_, 1901.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE

THE VEGETATIVE ORGANS 1

CHAPTER II.

THE VEGETATIVE ORGANS (_continued_) 17

CHAPTER III.

GRASSES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THEIR VEGETATIVE CHARACTERS 39

CHAPTER IV.

ANATOMY AND HISTOLOGY 62

CHAPTER V.

GRASSES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS
OF 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