CAMBRIDGE BIOLOGICAL SERIES. GENERAL EDITOR:--ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY, M.A., F.R.S. FELLOW AND TUTOR OF CHRIST’s COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. GRASSES. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, C. F. CLAY, MANAGER. London: FETTER LANE, E.C. Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET. [Illustration] ALSO London: H. K. LEWIS, 136, GOWER STREET, W.C. Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS. Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN & CO. LTD. [_All Rights reserved._] GRASSES A HANDBOOK FOR USE IN THE FIELD AND LABORATORY. BY H. MARSHALL WARD, SC.D., F.R.S. LATE PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. CAMBRIDGE: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1908 _First Edition 1901 Reprinted 1908_ 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.