Grass 



But the best way is to bring a few different sorts of 

 grasses into the house and leave them with their stalks 

 in water. They are soon covered with pollen, and one 

 can see the neat little contrivances to insure crossing 

 and also distinguish the colours of the grass flowers. 



These colours are far too delicate to appreciate when 

 one is simply walking beside a hayfield. When seen 

 close at hand, one is astonished at the variety of the 

 tints of pink, silvery green, browns, and purples. The 

 bright yellow pollen and fresh green of the leaves set 

 them off artistically. 



The pure-white, feathery stigmas project also out of 

 the covering glumes, and are well arranged to intercept 

 the pollen. It is not generally known that insects do 

 visit the flowers of some grasses, and especially sweet 

 vernal, so that these colours are not altogether wasted. 



The exquisite engineering of a fine grown flowering 

 stalk of even the little Poa annua can only be appreci- 

 ated by closely observing it. All ordinary grass haulms 

 are excessively strong, though very thin, and the graceful 

 way in which the relatively heavy spikelets are hung on 

 their slender stalks is most remarkable. In a strong 

 wind they are always in motion, bending and waving 

 about ; each spikelet, with its small conical base, swings 

 into the direction of the wind and hovers about in it. 



The stems of grasses are hollow, and the mechanical 

 tissue is arranged in a ring near the outer circumference. 

 Their strength is enormous if one remembers the very 

 narrow diameter and the height of the columns, with the 

 weights of fluttering leaves and heavy little spikelets. 



Over-fed and pampered grasses such as our corn 

 and wheat are often beaten to the ground by heavy 

 rain or hail, but the grass is prepared even for such 

 accidents as these. The base of the lower leaf-sheaths 

 is thick and swollen where it joins the stem. When 

 the grass stem lies upon the ground, the attraction of 



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