YELLOW OAT-GRASS VERVAIN. 95 



deserted dwelling, a family gone, a hearth that 

 smokes no more. A lover of cold, it maintains the 

 beautiful ovate form of its flower only in a low tem- 

 perature ; warmth expanding the petals, vitiating its 

 grace, and destroying its character. It seems to 

 preserve its native purity free from every contami- 

 nation ; it will become double, but never wanders 

 into varieties, is never streaked or tinged with the 

 hues of other flowers. 



One of our pasture grasses is particularly affected 

 by dry weather. Several are injured frequently 

 by drought acting upon the stalk, not molesting 

 the root, but withering the succulent base of the 

 straw, which arises from the upper joint ; in conse- 

 quence of which, the panicle, and connecting 

 straw, dry away, while the foliage and lower leaves 

 remain uninjured. None are so obnoxious to this 

 injury as the yellow oat-grass (avena flavescens,) 

 and in some seasons almost the whole of its panicles 

 will be withered in a field of surrounding verdure. 

 Pastures that are grazed must from circumstances 

 be drier than those covered with herbage fit for the 

 scythe ; yet, from some unknown cause, this oat- 

 grass seems less injured in this respect in grazing 

 grounds, than in those where the herbage is reserved 

 for mowing. 



The plain, simple, unadorned vervain (verbena 

 officinalis) is one of our most common, and de- 

 cidedly waste-loving plants. Disinclined to all 



