32 GLUMACEAt 
Multitudes of long slender leaves are blending with the foliage of various 
forms, which precede the spring and summer flowers, and 
‘« Grow like the summer grass, fastest by night, 
Unseen, yet crescive in its beauty.” 
This rapidity of growth adds much to the interest with which we look on 
nature at this season. The scene of to-day is even richer than that of 
yesterday. It may be that a storm, accompanied by heavy rains, pours over 
field and valley, and its torrents might seem destined to beat down the 
tender grass to earth, and to strip the bending twigs of all their wealth of 
leaves. Yet that storm shall but prepare the way for their quicker growth ; 
for the electrical state of the atmosphere which follows it is, of all conditions, 
most favourable to the rapid increase of vegetation. 
The grassy turf which makes our meadows so bright and beautiful, and 
which adorns the landscape also of other countries in the colder portion of 
the temperate zone, is almost entirely absent from those lands on which the 
sun shines with its fullest power. Even in Southern Europe, where meadow 
lands more seldom occur, there begins to be some assimilation in the general 
appearance of the grasses to the taller species of lower latitudes ; and reeds, 
which are with us of moderate size, rival the tree-like grasses which form so 
characteristic a feature of tropical scenery. The species of grass found in 
warmer lands are mostly different from those of our country, though some 
genera—Poa, for instance—are very widely distributed, and some species of 
this genus are found in all varieties of climate. Wherever we find grasses, 
we see them growing more or less socially. Tropical grasses are not only 
taller than ours, but they have flowers more downy and elegant, and broader 
leaves. The noble plants of the Bamboo family rise to the height of trees, 
forming, both in tropical and sub-tropical zones, vast and impenetrable 
forests; their slender stalks, reclining branches, and tall grassy leaves, 
reminding the native of northern countries of the willows of his own land, 
yet far excelling these in grace and beauty. ‘Taller than even alders and oaks, 
these tree-like grasses wave more gracefully before the winds than our sturdy 
trees can do, and give a cheerful and airy aspect to the forest by their light 
and tremulous motion, and their smoothly-polished yellow stems ; while the 
gigantic sugar-cane family, though not so numerous, are scarcely less beauti- 
ful as they wave their silvery flowers so gracefully to the wind. 
In these warm regions the want of green meadows is not felt. The 
‘cattle on a thousand hills” of the colder climate, are not needed in these ; 
and the great Creator has spread therefore no vast pastures for their supply. 
The Hindoo who can dine on a dish of plantain or of rice, would be injured 
by any great quantity of animal food, and is directed by instinct to a vegetable 
diet. A slight herbage rises up at all times of the year, after the sudden 
shower or the long-continued rain; and this being sufficient to supply food 
for the horses, no hay is made in the East. During the rainy season, there 
are, in some tropical countries, extensive tracts of grass ; as, for instance, in 
the savannahs of America ; but they are unmixed with wild flowers, such as 
our daisy, clover, and buttercup ; they present no uniform mass of greensward, 
and are often as tall as the traveller who is passing through them. Grasses 
of various kinds are to be found in more or less abundance from the equator 
