Reeds, Grasses, Sedges and Rushes 83 



gions. The spikelets with their slender, rough awns from 

 an inch to two and a half inches long, resemble barbs, and 

 these awns turn to a warm, rich reddish hue as the summer 

 advances, and present a beautiful appearance as they swing 

 and sway in the wind. 



" In the summer of the summer, when the hazy air is sweet 

 With the breath of crimson clover, and the day's a-shine with heat, 

 When the sky is blue and burning and the clouds a downy mass, 

 When the breeze is idly dawdling, there is music in the grass 



" Just a thistly, whistly sound 



In the tangles near the ground; 



And the flitting fairies often stop to listen as they pass ; 

 Just a lisping, whisp'ring tune, 

 Like a bumblebee's bassoon, 

 In a far-away fantasia, is the music in the grass. 



" Would you know what makes the music ? On each slender, quivering 



blade 

 There are notes and chords and phrases by the bees and crickets 



played ; 



And the grasshoppers and locusts strive each other to surpass 

 In their brave interpretation of the music in the grass. 



" By the roguish breezes tost 



You might think it would get lost, 



But the careful fairies guard it, watching closely as they pass. 

 So on every summer day, 

 Sounding faint and far away, 

 Is the mystic, murmuring marvel of the music in the grass." 



HARE'S TAIL 



Eriophorum callitrix. Sedge Family 



Perennial by rootstock. Culm: obtusely triangular, stiff, smooth, slen- 

 der. Leaves: filiform, channeled; spikelet terminal, solitary, erect; 

 involucre none ; scales spirally imbricated, ovate-lanceolate, long-acumi- 

 nate, purplish-brown, membranous; bristles numerous, white or slightly 

 yellowish, weak. 



