[PALM FAMILY.-ENDOGENOUS or MONOCOTYLEDONOUS; Aglumaceous.]1 1. Cor'ypha umbraculif'era, Great fan palm, or Tallipot palm, vi. 1, y., 100 f., Jl., E. Indies. (The topmost leaves form immense fans, twenty feet long and fifteen wide.) 2. Sa'gus rum'phii, Rumphius's sago palm, xix. 6, g., 50 f., Jl.-Au., E. Indies. 3. Co'cus nucif'era, Cocoanut palm, xix. 6, g., Jl.-Au., 50 f., E. Indies. 4. Phoenix dactilif'era, Date palm, xx. 3, w. and g., 50 f., W. Asia. 5. Ela'is Guineen'sis, Guinea oil palm, xx. 6, w. and g., 30 f., Guinea. 6. Chama'rops hys'trix, Porcupine palm, xx. 2, w. and g., 10 f., Georgia. low valleys of the tropics, or on the declivities of the lower mountains, another part consists of hardy mountaineers, bordering on the limits of perpetual snow." ants. 10. The cocoanut palm, which grows abundantly in the East Indies, supplies nearly every want of the native inhabitTravelers have described the uses which the native of Ceylon makes of it. He builds his house of its trunk, and thatches the roof with its leaves. His children sleep in a rude hammock made of the husk of the fruit; his meal of rice and scraped cocoanut is boiled over a fire made of cocoanut shells and husks, and is eaten from a dish of plaited green leaves of the tree, with a spoon cut out of a cocoanut shell. 11. In his canoe, made of the trunk of the palm-tree, he carries a torch of dried palm leaves, and fishes with a net of cocoanut fibre. When thirsty he drinks the juice of the cocoanut, and when hungry eats its soft kernel. He makes a drink called arrack from the fermented juice, and dances to the music of cocoanut castanets. He anoints himself with cocoanut oil, and, when sick, gets his medicine from the tree so useful to him in health. Over his couch in infancy, and over his grave, a bunch of cocoanut blossoms is hung to charm away evil spirits. 12. Branches of palm were anciently carried in token of victory, but more generally it was reserved for religious triumphs; and from this, as well as from the prominent place it occupies in Holy Writ, we feel the epithet of "celestial palm," bestowed on it by Pope, not inapplicable. No wonder that the Arab loves the palm, which he converts to so many uses-of food, and drink, and raiment, and shelter - and that he places it among the foremost objects of his affections. 13. The palmetto, which grows in South Carolina, and farther south, is the only rep-. resentative of the Palm family north of the Gulf of Mexico. It will be recollected that the fort on Sullivan's Island, so gallantly defended by Colonel Moultrie in 1776, was constructed of palmetto logs, and that, owing to the soft nature of the wood, the balls of the enemy had but littleeffect to injure it. The palmetto has been appropriately placed on the coat of arms of South Carolina. 1 A-GLU-MA'-CEOUS plants are such as have not the glumes or husks which characterize the grains and grasses. LESSON XX.-SEDGES AND GRASSES. 1. SEDGES are grass-like herbs, growing in tufts, and never acquiring a shrubby condition. So nearly do they resemble grasses in appearance, that the one may be readily mistaken for the other by the inexperienced; but, unlike grasses, the stems of sedges are usually angular, never hollow, and not completely jointed; and, moreover, when the leaf-stalks of sedges surround the stem, they grow together by their edges 1. Schoe'nus mucrona'tus, Clustered bog-rush, iii. 1, (ap.), 1 f., A.-My., S. Europe. 2. Scir pus lacus'tris, Tall club-rush, iii. 1, (ap.), 6 f., Jl.-Au., Britain. 3. Scir'pus trique'ter, Triangular club-rush, iii. 1, (ap.), 3 f., Au., Eng. 4. Cype'rus vege'tus, Smooth marshsedge, iii. 1, (ap.), 18 in., My.-Au., N. Am. 5. Phleum praten'se, Timothy grass, with portions of the flower magnified, iii. 2, (ap.), 2 f., Jl., N. Am. 6. Tricus'pis quinque' fida, English red-top, iii. 2, (ap.), 2 f., Jn.-Jl., N. Am. 7. Po'a aquatica, Water meadow-grass, iii. 2, (ap.), 6 f., Jl., N. Am. and Britain. 8. Agros'tis vulgaris, American red-top, with the flower magnified, iii. 2, (ap.), 18 in., Jn., N. Am. 9. Bri'za me'dia, Common quakinggrass, iii. 2, (ap.), 18 in., Jn., Britain. into a perfect sheath. The plants of this family are of little value as nutriment to man or beast; but they are found in all parts of the world, in marshes, ditches, running streams, in meadows and on heaths, in groves and forests, on the flowing sands of the sea-shore, on the tops of mountains, from the arctic to the antarctic circle, wherever flowering vegetation can exist. 2. That the Grasses occupy a very different position in the vegetable kingdom will at once be apparent when we remark that in this family are found such plants as rye, oats, barley, maize or Indian corn, rice, sugar-cane, bamboo, and reeds, as well as the ordinary grasses. Of about four thousand species, of which this numerous and valuable family consists, only a single one, the poisonous darnel, is known to be injurious to man. All the grasses are provided with true flowers, that is, with stamens and pistils, but there is little trace of the calyx and corolla. The general appearance of the common grasses is so well-known that we need not describe it; nor need we speak of their wide distribution, for every body knows that they "come creeping, creeping every where," as is prettily told in 3. 4. 5. THE VOICE OF THE GRASS. Here I come creeping, creeping every where; Nor hear my low, sweet humming; And the glad morning light, I come quietly creeping every where. Here I come creeping, creeping every where; In summer's pleasant hours; And the merry bird not sad, To see me creeping every where. Here I come creeping, creeping every where; In the happy spring I'll come And deck your silent home Creeping silently, creeping every where. Here I come creeping, creeping every where; My humble song of praise Most joyfully I raise To Him at whose command I beautify the land, Creeping, silently creeping every where.-SARAH ROBERTS. 7. Of the immense value of the cereals to mankind we need not attempt to form an estimate; for how could human life, in one half of the globe, be sustained without them? And as to the grasses proper, they are the principal food of the most valuable of the domestic animals. In the United States alone, the value of agricultural products belonging to this great family is estimated at not less than seven hundred millions of dollars annually! And what an amount of labor is bestowed upon their cultivation! What variety and extent of interests are dependent upon the seasonable rain, and the dew, and the sunshine, which our heavenly Father sends to bring them to perfection! And what anxieties are felt about those scourges from insects, and storms, and blight, and mildew, that occasionally injure, and threaten to destroy them! 8. Wheat, "golden wheat," of which there are reckoned three hundred varieties, is supposed to have been, once, an unprofitable grass growing wild on the shores of the Mediterranean, and to have become, by cultivation, the most valuable of all vegetable products. It is now difficult to tell what are mere varieties and what are distinct species; certain it is, that though it thrives best when treated as a biennial-sown in autumn and harvested the following summer-yet winterwheat sown in spring will ripen the same year, though the produce of succeeding generations of spring-sown wheat is found to ripen better; white, red, and beardless wheat change [CEREALS.-ENDOGENOUS or MONOCOTYLEDONOUS; Glumaceous.]1 1. Triticum hyber'num, Winter wheat, iii. 2, (ap.), 4 f., Jn.-Jl., unknown. 2. Trit'icum compositum, Egyptian wheat, iii. 2, (ap.), 34 f., Jn.-J., Egypt. 3. Trit'icum spe'lta, Spelter wheat, iii. 2, (ap.), 3 f., Jn.-Jl., Egypt. 4. Seca'le cerea'le, Common rye, iii. 2, (ap.), 4 f., Jn.-J., Crimea. 5. Sac'charum officina'rum, Sugar-cane, iii. 2, (ap.), 12 f., Au., India. 6. Ave'na fa'tua, Wild oat, iii. 2, (ap.), 4 f., Au., Britain. 7. Hor'deum vulga're, Spring barley, iii. 2, (ap.), 3 f., Jl., Sicily. 8. Mil'ium effu'sum, Common millet, iii. 2, (ap.), 4 f., Jn.-J., Britain. 9. Triticum Polon'icum, Polish wheat, iii. 2, (ap.), 4f., Jn.-Jl., Egypt. and run into each other on different soils and in different climates; and even the Egyptian wheat is known to change to the single-spiked common plant. 9. The American reader will recollect that in Europe wheat is called corn, a term which we apply only to maize or Indian corn. The latter was found cultivated for food by the Indians of both North and South America on the first discovery of the continent, and from this circumstance it derived its popular name. It is still found growing, in a wild state, in the humid forests of Paraguay, where, instead of having each grain naked as is always the case after long cultivation, each is completely covered with glumes or husks. The varieties produced by cultivation are numerous. 10. Indian corn furnishes a fine example of those plants which have staminate flowers on one part of the plant and pistillate on another. Thus the staminate flowers of the corn are those loose yellow branches which grow at the top of the stalk, while the pistillate, hidden among the lower leaves, are I |