AMONG THE GRASSES 135 



effort to bring into popular speech one of the most common 

 and useful grasses, whose flower or seed-heads we have most 

 of us seen, not without curiosity, enveloped by the lump of 

 froth that conceals the little grub in summer before it joins 

 the winged multitudes of autumn. 'Twitch' again we all 

 know. Because it is unpleasant to us we give it a humble 

 name. It creeps and crawls and roots itself again and again, 

 like a buttercup, and not at all in the way of a real grass, 

 which is sown broadcast by the lightest seed that is blown. 

 And it is the seed that is the crowning beauty of the grass. 

 The seed has the colour of the ruddy poplar catkins of 

 spring, and gives the full surface of the hay-field a richness 

 of tint that much surpasses, if you look close, even the glory 

 of the corn. 



The haysel is a match for the harvest. Of all the feats of 

 colour in the hay none quite equals the lesser plantain, which 

 is the terror of the lawn but a great addition to the meadow. 

 The leaves may rise to a foot in length, and the flower-head 

 to two feet. This is hung with feathery dust of the subtlest 

 gradations of colour white and fawn and browns that deepen 

 into lilac. For decorative purpose the plantain head could 

 scarcely be surpassed, and it contains a series of tints into 

 which the other grasses all fit. Men like to cut their hay 

 before the bulk of the grasses have ripened and shed their 

 light seeds, but some of the sorts are too early, too quick for 

 the mowers. The dog's-tails still hang their heavy ponderous 

 heads to one side, and their stalwart stems are still too green 

 and luscious to be called bents. The oat-grasses are not 

 much more forward than the winter oats. All about the 

 roots of the tall plants, the sorrels and daisies, and perhaps 

 here and there kexes and moon daisies, the little bird's-foot 

 trefoil is soft and green and hardly in flower, and all the 

 clovers are turgid with fresh moisture. The undergrowth is 



