152 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



great soldiers have sometimes done in a single 

 battle, for they are determining boundary lines. 



Most grasses have a strong rootstock, often 

 called a root really an underground stem. It 

 creeps horizontally beneath the surface of the soil, 

 sending fibrous roots downward and leaves and 

 stems upward. It survives severe winters and 

 parching droughts, and young blades grow up 

 from it in spring, or on the return of rainy 

 weather. 



To this family habit we owe, in great measure, 

 the beauty of the fields and the life of grazing 

 animals, for if all grasses grew from seed each 

 year cattle would soon exterminate the very sorts 

 which they like best. 



And the subterranean rootstocks of grasses are 

 extremely useful as soil and sand-binders for wave- 

 beaten and wind-swept regions. 



All down the sandy ocean coasts a war is 

 waged, unceasingly, between the sea and the land. 

 The robber-waves, like an attacking army, seem 

 forever trying to overwhelm or to carry off the 

 land. The land tries to withstand and repel 

 them. 



Each of the principal combatants has formed an 

 alliance. The waves are helped by the wind. 



