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 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...