160 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



grass-stalk pass harmlessly over the long, narrow 

 leaves, which have taken the form of pennants to 

 meet a like necessity. For both grass-blade and 

 yacht-pennant must expose the largest possible 

 area to the light, and yet present no broad sur- 

 face to be torn by winds. 



These narrow leaves are born one by one along 

 the hollow stem which botanists call a haulm. 

 They are traversed by straight veins, which run 

 lengthwise, almost parallel to one another. At the 

 point where the leaf or " blade" bends away from 

 its sheathing-base there is a little whitish, semi- 

 transparent scale the ligule or " shoe-latchet " 



(Fig- 39). 



While "a grass" is speedily recognized by the 

 merest tyro, the trained botanist is sometimes puz- 

 zled" in the effort to identify his particular grass, 

 and to differentiate it from near relations, which 

 resemble it as confusingly as Dromio of Ephesus 

 resembled Dromio of Syracuse. Under such cir- 

 cumstances the ligule sometimes gives the clue, 

 for in one species it may be chopped off abrupt- 

 ly, in another drawn out into a delicate point, 

 and in a third cut into a fringe. 



Its purpose in the plant's domestic economy is 

 not evident. 



