Abstract
GRASSES form one of the largest and most wide-spread families, adapted to very different conditions of soil and climate, but with a remarkably uniform plan of structure. Wherever conditions allow of plant-life on land, there, almost without exception, the family is represented. In number of species the grass family falls short of other great families of flowering plants, Compositæ, Leguminosæ, or Orchids, but in the aggregation of many individuals of one and the same or a few species, either growing alone or densely scattered through a mixed herbage covering large areas, it forms a pre-eminent type of the earth's vegetation—as, for instance, in the grass-carpets forming the meadows or pastures of temperate or cold climates, or the coarser growth prevalent over vast areas, as in steppe or prairie vegetation.
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The Story of a Grass . Nature 101, 317–318 (1918). https://doi.org/10.1038/101317a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/101317a0