146 WILD FLOWERS OF SUMMEB. 



verdure to gladden his eyes, and a living beauty to 

 imbue his heart with holiness and peace." Travellers 

 have told us that the most sublime scenes on the face 

 of the earth are often wanting in the higher elements 

 of beauty ; for you may look in vain for a grassy knoll 

 or quiet spot of delicious greenery, such as are common 

 in our own land. 



As we have wandered in search of the brighter 

 coloured wildings of Nature, we have seen the tall 

 Brome creeping through the brambles, and showing its 

 graceful oat-like spray above the undergrowth of vege- 

 tation. We have seen it bending in luxuriant masses 

 over the broad stream, and hidden away in the silent 

 depths of the woodland, or sparkling in the glades of 

 the forest. "We have felt its elasticity and wire-like 

 texture under our feet on the wild moorland. It is 

 ever present in our landscape, and as it is one of the 

 most common, it is one of the most interesting and 

 useful of the tribes or families of the vegetable world, 

 yet it has been strangely neglected. Ferns and seaweeds 

 have been popularized, but the " grass of the field," 

 in all its varied beauty of form and foliage, has been 

 apparently overlooked ; yet there are but few objects 

 in Nature more beautiful or more graceful than a 



