FOLIAGE. 61 



expresses the fertility of the soil; it tells of gentle 

 showers that have not been wanting ; and it becomes 

 thereby the symbol of providential care, the sign of pas- 

 toral abundance and rural prosperity. We find the grasses 

 only where nature has made the greatest provision for the 

 comfort and happiness of man and animals. All the 

 beauties and bounties of springtime and harvest gather 

 round them ; the dews of morning glisten upon them like 

 stars in the heavens ; the flowers are sprinkled upon them 

 like gems in beautiful tapestry ; the little brooks ripple 

 through them with sounds that are always cheerful, and 

 flash in the sunlight as they leap over their bending 

 blades. The merry multitudes of the insect race gain 

 from them shelter and subsistence, and send up an un- 

 ceasing chorus of merry voices from their verdure, which 

 is a beautiful counterpart of the blue of heaven. 



It may be truly said that no splendor of flowers or of 

 the foliage of trees would make amends for the absence 

 of grass. Distant hills and plains may be made beautiful 

 by trees alone; but all near grounds require this vel- 

 vety covering to render them grateful to the sight or 

 interesting to the mind, This is the picturesque view 

 of the subject; but in the eyes of a botanist grass is 

 almost infinite in its attractions. In every field or pas- 

 ture that offers its tender blades to the grazing herds, 

 there are multitudes of species, beside the thousands 

 of herbs and flowers and ferns and mosses which are 

 always blended with them, and assist in composing their 

 verdure. What seems to the eyes of a child a mere 

 uniform mass of green is an assemblage of different 

 species that would afford study for a lifetime. Grasses, 

 though minute objects, are vast in their assemblages ; but 

 if we reflect on the phenomena of nature, we shall not 

 consider the least thing any less admirable than the 

 srreatest. The same amount of wonderful mechanism is 



