Grass. 



The Clans bog -cotton or canna (ceann-ban-a-mhonaidh, 

 of the the white head of the hillside, as we call it in 

 Gaelic), those lovers of the wilderness and 

 boggy places. With these is the bindweed 

 that with the salt bent holds the loose shores. 

 With these are all the shadow-loving clans of 

 the fern, from the bracken, whose April-green 

 lightens the glens and whose autumnal bronze 

 and dull gold make the hillsides so resplendent, 

 to the stonewort on the dykes, the lady-fern 

 in the birch-woods, the maidenhair by springs 

 and falls, the hart's -tongue in caverns, the 

 Royal fern whose broad fronds are the pride 

 of heather- waste and morass. The mosses, too, 

 are from this vast clan of the earth-set, from 

 the velvet-soft edging of the oak-roots or the 

 wandering greenness of the swamp to the ashy 

 tresses which hang on spruce or hemlock or 

 the grey fringes of the rocks by northern 

 seas. And with them are the lichens, that 

 beautiful secret company who love the shadow- 

 side of trees, and make stones like flowers, and 

 transmute the barrenness of rock and boulder 

 with dyes of pale gold and blazing orange, and 

 umber rich as the brown hearts of tarns, and 

 pearl -grey delicate as a cushat's breast, and 

 saffron as yellow-green as the sunset-light after 

 the clearing of rains. To all these, indeed, 

 should be added the greater grasses which we 



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