144 ROUND THE YEAR 



flowering Grasses which deaden their tints. I can 

 see from my window one patch of emerald green in 

 the sea of brown ; it is a field which has just been 

 cut and cleared. 



Grass-pollen floats everywhere in the air. I find it 

 on my microscopic slides, and sufferers from hay-fever 

 find it to their sorrow in their nostrils. Dr. Blackley, 

 when prosecuting his ingenious researches into the 

 cause of hay-fever, found grass-pollen at considerable 

 heights in the air. He raised two and even three kites, 

 one above another, the lower holding the string of the 

 one beyond it, and so was able to expose slips 

 smeared with glycerine at elevations of several 

 hundred feet. The spread of grass-pollen to great 

 heights in the air, and its penetration to the recesses 

 of our houses give proof of the extreme lightness 

 and profusion of the grains. While almost every 

 stigma becomes fertilised, innumerable grains are 

 wasted. Insect-fertilised flowers waste little pollen, 

 but they have to maintain an elaborate machinery to 

 secure this advantage. 



A friendly correspondent, Mr. B. Holgate of Leeds, 

 tells me of the curious spectacle that may often be 

 observed when a field of hay is cut. The wild 

 animals which lurked in the long grass are driven 

 towards the centre as the scythe or mowing machine 

 works round the field from the outside. Rabbits, 

 Field-mice, and now and then a Weasel or a Hare 

 may be imprisoned in the ever-narrowing patch of 

 uncut grass. In the hayfield Hares are seldom caught 

 in this way, but when a cornfield is reaped, they are 

 often unable to escape. The noise of the reaper 



