74 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



of the scene ; while flowers, fountains, and bright-eyed children, with 

 English health npon theii' cheeks, combine to render it homely and 

 national ; and, in the hour of meditation, wc remember that the grass of 

 the field is an emblem of the life of man, and close the reflection by repeat- 

 ing the solemn words of Holy "Writ — ''All flesh is grass, and all the good- 

 liness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower 

 fadeth ; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it : surely the people 

 is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God 

 shall stand for ever." 



In the exercise of that spirit of thankful aff'ection, with which the true 

 naturalist surveys the world around him, the universality of grass is a fact 

 accepted as a distinct teaching of the kindly regard for the happiness of all 

 creatures, which is so prominent a featui-e in the plan of creation. In 

 herbage and grain the grasses fiu'nish a larger amount of sustenance 

 to animal Kfe than all other tribes of plants together, and so profusely 

 have they been shed abroad in every conceivable variety, as climate, soil, 

 and situation may influence their growth, that the earth has taken their 

 colouring for a garment, and presents a firmament of green almost as 

 unbroken as the upper firmament of blue, which is the[only other prevailing 

 tint in Nature. No matter how elevated or how barren the spot, grasses 

 of some kind will make themselves a home in it ; and when every variety 

 of soil and climate has been furnished with its appropriate kinds, others 

 find for themselves sites in water, carpeting the bed of the brook, or bind- 

 ing the shingle together on the shore of the sea ; o'thers on ruins, house- 

 tops, and subterranean retreats, if but a glimpse of daylight reach them. 

 In that remarkable work, "The Flora of the Colosseum," in which Dr. 

 Deakin has described 420 plants found growing spontaneously on the ruins 

 of the Colosseum at Home, there are no fewer than fifty- six grasses 

 entered as flourishing in various parts of that venerable ruin ; those fifty- 

 six include examjDles ofArenaria, Avena, Brha, Bromus, Festuca, Sordetim, 

 Jjolium, and Poa, besides that farmer's friend, Anthoxanthim odoratum, 

 which is said, bixt erroneously, to be the sole source of the fragrance 

 of new-mown hay. This universality of grass is one of the most poetical 

 of facts in the economy of the world. " There is no place which it will 

 not beautify. It climbs up the steep mountain passes which are inacces- 

 sible to man, and forms ledges of green amid the rivings of the crags ; it 

 leaps down between steep shelving precipices, and there fastens its slender 

 roots in the dry crevices which the earthquakes had rent long ago, and 

 into which the water trickles when the sunbeams strike the hoary snows 

 above. There it leaps and twines in the morning light, and fiings its 

 sweet, sweet laughing greenness to the sun ; there it creeps and climbs 

 about the mazes of the solitude, and weaves its fairy tassels with the wind. 

 It beautifies even that spot, and spreads over the sightless visage of death 

 and darkness the serene beauty of a summer smile, flinging its green lustre 

 on the bold granite, and perfuming the lips of morning as she stoops from 

 heaven to kiss the green things of the earth. It makes a moist and yield- 

 ing carpet over the whole earth, on which the impetuous may pass with 

 hui'ried tread, or the feet of beauty linger."* 



It may be stated as an axiom, that in spite of the attractions of the 

 subject, grasses are less studied than most other tribes of plants. You 

 shall cut a square turf from any wayside common, and submit it to a 



• "Brambles and Bay Leaves : Essays on the Homely and the Beautiful." 



