FLORA'S LEXICON. ••! 



RASS. Gramen. Class 3, Triandri.v. Or- 

 ^ der: Digynia. It will be admitted that 

 what is the most useful, is in nature the 

 most common ; and of all vegetable pro- 

 ductions, what is there more common than 

 grass] It clothes the earth with a ver- 

 dant carpet, and it yields food, — nay, it 

 " grows for the cattle," in obedience to the Creator's word. 



UTILITY. 



'Tis pleasant, on the steep hill-side : 

 Where lies in view the prospect wide 

 Of cultured farm, with interchange 

 Of tilth and pasture, cot and grange, 

 At ease the careless limbs to stretch 

 Beneath the broad o'er-arching beech, 

 And, lighted by the sky serene, 

 Mark the full hay-field's varied scene. 

 Here, as the swarthy mowers pass 

 Slow through the tall and russet grass, 

 In marshalling rank from side to side, 

 With circling stroke and measured stride, 

 Before the scythe's wide-sweeping sway 

 The russet meadow's tall array 

 "Falls, and the bristly surface strows 

 With the brown swathe's successive rows. 



And then the toiling horses strain, 



Slowly to move the ponderous wain. 



From pile to pile the slow wain goes, 



And still at each more lotty grows ; 



While the stout swains below supply 



Fresh fardels to the swains on high, 



Heaps upon heaps the grassy load : 



Thence, lumbering o'er the homeward road, 



It swells, adorn'd with trophied bough, 



The rich compact, or treasured mow. Mant. 



