64 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



But if the grasses are so degraded, why do they suc- 

 ceed in life so well ? One has only to cast an eye at the 

 fields around one to see that they have fared not badly 

 in the struggle for existence. In the first place we must 

 remember that in a natural state there are not, as a rule, 

 nearly so many grasses as we see about us in England. 

 Yirgin forest would naturally cover much of the land 

 which we have given over to meadow and pasture for 

 our own purposes ; and even where great prairies occupy 

 many miles together, they are by no means so exclu- 

 sively grassy as most people who have not seen them 

 are apt to imagine. Setting this aside, however, it must 

 be allowed that the grasses are really a very successful 

 family, one of the most successful on earth. But the 

 truth is, they owe their success to their very degeneracy. 

 The most highly developed types of plants or animals 

 are never by any means the most numerous. There are 

 more acorn barnacles on a single mile of tide-covered 

 rock than there are human beings in all the British Isles. 

 Who can count the number of little green aphides on a 

 solitary rose-leaf, or the number of mites in a single 

 pound of old cheese ? Yet all three classes are degene- 

 rate. It is just the same with plants : the small, lithe, 

 waving grasses can till up a thousand nooks and cornel's 

 in nature which cannot be filled by the great oaks, or 

 even by the tall docks, or spurges, or nettles. As a rule, 

 one may say that the higher plants are comparatively | 

 few and far between, while the small, degenerate types 

 are common and ubiquitous : just as one can everywhere 

 find little insects and creeping things, while deer, ele- 

 phants, zebras, and monkeys, both from their larger size 

 and higher specialization, are only found in small num- 

 bers over restricted areas. 



But in their own way,' to fill their own place in 



