126 NATURE STUDY 



the tiny scales and thus revealed the love secret of the fani- 

 ily. 



Almost, if not quite, as early as this cultivated species, 

 there come into flower the two earliest wild species in the 

 vicinity of Manchester. These are to be found in dry 

 places where few other grasses will thrive. They are the 

 so-called mountain rice grasses, Oryzopsis Canadensis and 

 asperifolia, both growing in large tufts, with densely mat- 

 ted rootstocks and erect or slanting culms, the former spe- 

 cies with ver}' numerous, narrow basal leaves, the latter 

 with fewer, broad and very long leaves. With the flower- 

 ing of these two species the annual procession of the grass- 

 es is begun. 



Even more beautiful than the shades and tints of green 

 are some of the purples of the grasses. Before the ripen- 

 ing of the pollen the anthers are in many species bright red 

 or purple. The leaves and stems often turn crimson or 

 scarlet after deca}^ has set in.' There is one grass of late 

 summer or early fall which is surpassingly beautiful in color 

 and line and mass and motion. I use the word motion with 

 deliberate intent. On dry, gravelly plains where scarcely 

 anything else will flourish ma^^ see in August a tall grass 

 growing in rather large tufts. The basal leaves are 

 broad, for a grass, and the culms are slender, with closely 

 appressed, upright branches. As ye\. there are no marked 

 indications of beauty. Visit the same plain a month later 

 and it seems as if a magic spell had been cast over it, trans- 

 forming those homely tufts of coarse grass into thing of 

 transcendent loveliness. The highly polished stems have 

 taken on the most exquisite tints of purple and brown and 

 yellow\ The flowers have opened and disclosed tinj^ feath- 

 er-like collections of glistening, white hairs. Then when 

 the sun shines, bringing out and heightening every tint, 

 and when the wind sweeps along, swaying every tuft and 



