A Census of the Grasses of New South Wales

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Excerpt from A Census of the Grasses of New South Wales: Together With a Popular Description of Each Species To popularise any branch of natural science so as to make it acceptable to the general public it becomes necessary to divest it of as much technical language as possible, without, however, interfering with the scientific name of anything. Some scientific nomenclature must be given to make any object universally understood. It has been often remarked that no books are more ridiculed by the general public than those dealing with science. Keeping these thoughts in mind the author ventures to write a popular description of all the grasses indigenous to New South Wales, so that the information given may be as easily understood in the small settler's home as in the more pretentious dwelling of the pastoralist. In 1879 the writer compiled his first list of 100 Australian grasses, together with a popular description of each species. This led to so much interest being taken in them, both by pastoralists and farmers, that the writer has, since that time, named thousands of specimens sent to him for identification, and given much information as regards their value for forage, hay, &c., It is thought that the present time is most opportune for issuing a full description of all our grasses, so that the latest information regarding their merits may be placed before the public. After the abundant rainfall we have had, the natural grasses will (unless in places where they have been too closely fed down, which, however, is their general condition) produce an abundance of seed, and there should be no difficulty in collecting any quantity in the railway reserves, or in specially reserved areas, for dissemination throughout the country. The time of the year at which each grass ripens its seeds is noted, and also the district or locality where it grows, and whether it is an annual or perennial, and as far as is known its common name is given in the descriptive matter. This will help the collector to identify some of the species. It is generally admitted by all observant persons interested in agricultural and pastoral pursuits that something in the way of systematic cultivation or conservation must be undertaken ere long to save some of our most valuable grasses from extinction. There is no gainsaying the fact that the overstocking of runs has had a most serious effect upon the pastures in this Colony. It not only has destroyed many valuable salinous and other forage plants and grasses, but many useless weeds have sprung up in their places which stock will not touch. Some of these weeds have proved such a pest to the country that legislation has been directed towards their extermination. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.