224 WILD FLOWERS OF 



natives of this country. Although their want of peta- 

 loid colorific beauty renders them too often neglected, 

 yet, surely that is made up in the elegance exhibited 

 by their panicles ; while their utility to man and 

 animals gives them a value which no other tribe of 

 plants can with the same justice lay claim to for 

 from hence is derived the " stafi" of life." Indeed, 

 when we reflect upon the sheep, oxen, &c. fattened in 

 luxuriant pastures, whose flesh makes up when con- 

 sumed so great a portion of our nutriment, if flesh 

 eaters are not exactly and literally vegetarians, yet, as 

 Professor BURNETT tersely and truly says, they are 

 in fact living upon " grasses in disguise," only in 

 fact a little more elaborated. Even as far as beauty 

 is concerned, the Feather-grass (Stipa pennata) , the 

 Silver Hair-grass, and others of the genus Aira, the 

 elegant panicled Agrosti, and the common Reed, 

 whether in its early purple or late feathery aspect, the 

 Mountain Melic- Grass (Melica nutans), the Hair's- 

 tail Grass (Lagurus ovatus), and the Wood Reed 

 (Calamagrostis Epijejos), are not to be despised ; 

 while the common Quaking- Grass (JBriza, media), 

 charms even the humblest rustics, who gather it to 

 adorn the mantels of their little thatched cottages. 

 Briza minor is still more elegant. 



It is interesting to watch the progress of a meadow 

 from its emergence from the snowy mantle of winter, 

 until waving in full luxuriance its matured grasses 

 yield before the fatal scythe. First the daisy is seen 

 decking the pasture with silver stars, that in some 

 spots become dense as a white cloud, Then in some 

 places dandelions gild the rising grass, or in others 

 cuckoo-flowers form beautiful but transient silver 



