96 GRASS. 



it is plain that the general method of cutting and gathering 

 grass for hay was the same in early ages as at present; and 

 from Amos vii. 1, 2, it appears that the mowing took place 

 twice in a year. In Oriental cities the flat stones forming the 

 floors of the roofs frequently separate and allow of an accumula 

 tion of soil in the seams or cracks between them ; and where 

 the inmates are careless and not very cleanly, there are always 

 little growths springing out from the crevices of the walls and 

 floors. Hence the occasion for the scriptural references to the 

 grass growing on the house-tops, springing up from some floating 

 seeds which had found a lodgment in a scanty soil, which affords 

 room for the roots till the plant has grown up, and then, neither 

 soil nor moisture being sufficient, it perishes before coming 

 to perfection. This is the &quot;grass upon the house-tops which 

 withereth before it groweth up ; wherewith the mower filleth 

 not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.&quot; (Ps. 

 cxxix. 6, 7.) We have in our possession a beautiful little 

 yellow poppy taken from the angle of the steps leading up to 

 the Mosque of Omar, which had there found soil enough to 

 grow and flower. These small plants may also have been 

 included in the general term &quot;grass,&quot; although botanically of 

 a very different class. 



