Grasses

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.