USES. The Grasses play a very important part as cereals and fodder plants. The following are the most important of the cultivated ones: _Triticum vulgare_ (common Wheat), _turgidum_, _amyleum_, _polonicum_, _spelta_, _durum_, etc.; _Secale cereale_ (Rye); Barley (_Hordeum_-species, see under the genus); Maize; Oats (_Avena sativa_, _orientalis_, _nuda_); Millet (_Panicum miliaceum_); Durra (Turkish Millet, or Guinea-corn, _Sorghum vulgare_, _cernuum_ and _saccharatum_); Manna-grass (_Glyceria fluitans_). As fodder-plants especially: Rye-grass (_Lolium perenne_); Oat-grass (_Avena elatior_); Timothy (_Phleum pratense_); Fox-tail (_Alopecurus pratensis_); Cock’s foot (_Dactylis glomerata_); Dog’s tail (_Cynosurus cristatus_); Sweet-vernal (_Anthoxanthum odoratum_); Soft grass, or Yorkshire-fog (_Holcus lanatus_ and _mollis_); Quaking-grass (_Briza media_); species of Meadow-grass (_Poa_); Fescue (_Festuca_) and Brome (_Bromus_).--Several cultivated species of Grass are also used in the preparation of _fermented liquors_, the starch in the seeds being transformed to _sugar_ (beer from “Malt,” _i.e._ the germinated Barley; arrack from Rice); or the stem becomes specially saccharine before flowering: the Sugar-cane, _Sorghum saccharatum_. OFFICINAL. The rhizome of _Triticum repens_, Oat-grain, flour of Barley, and the starch of Wheat, also sugar. The seeds of _Lolium temulentum_ are considered _poisonous_.--The stems of many species (including our common grains) are used in the manufacture of paper, especially “Esparto grass” (_Stipa tenacissima_) from Spain and N. Africa, and the sheathing-leaves of the ♀-spike of _Maize_. Sand Lyme-grass (_Elymus arenarius_), and especially _Psamma arenaria_, are important.--But few Grass-species are _sweet-scented_: _Anthoxanthum odoratum_ and _Hierochloa odorata_ contain coumarin; _Andropogon_-species have essential oils (“Citronella oil”).--ORNAMENTAL PLANTS are: the “Ribbon-grass” (a variety of _Digraphis arundinacea_), _Stipa pennata_ (whose awn is exceedingly long and feathery), _Gynerium argenteum_ (Pampas-grass), _Lagurus ovatus_, _Hordeum jubatum_, _Bromus briziformis_. Family 3. =Spadicifloræ.=