THE GRASS OF THE WASTE PLACES 



547 



the flare of the red poppy and silvery bears strong resemblance to Lolium Itali- 



green of the \\'ild Oat is one of 

 Nature's most happy combinations of 

 effect. One can scarcely particularise 

 the habitat of these grasses better than 

 those of the " waste places," since they 



cum, the Rye Grass of cultivation, a 

 species having longer spilcelets. 



But the spike of the Way Bent may 

 be a much reduced example of the illus- 

 tration, perhaps less than six inches, but 



ENLARGED DETAILS OF THE FALSE OAT. 



a-e wonderfully ubiquitous. The Wild 

 Oat will spring up through the dead dry 

 accumulations of chaff in the rickyards 

 ■or among the rusty lumber surrounding 

 the blacksmith's shop with equal pos- 

 sibility. Its individual existence is only 

 annual ; the flowering, however, is main- 

 tained through June and July, the seed- 

 ling plants becoming dispersed in equally 

 promiscuous quarters. 



But the grass of all others that can 

 claim to be ubiquitous in any and every 

 waste place, and in every odd corner that 

 is left vacant by accident in places not 

 waste, is the Way Bent {Lolium perenne), 

 a perennial plant. In good quarters, 

 where it has perhaps established itself 

 among clover crops, it is quite a hand- 

 some grass, with as many as twenty-two 

 spikelets crowding the stem. It then 



always of flattened form, owing to the 

 spikelets being set edgewise upon the 

 stem. In the cultivated species there is 

 a wonderfully brilliant polish on the 

 lea\'es, which flash in the sunlight like 

 glass ; a field of it rippling to the wind is 

 a very beautiful sight. The vagabond 

 variety grows in truth anywhere that is 

 " waste." Not the hardest road bounded 

 by stone walls but will at their junction 

 show the Way Bent straggling in the 

 dust. It pierces the mounds of road 

 " metal " lying along the way. fringes 

 the most trodden of foot-paths, suburban 

 or otherwise, and seems independent of 

 all ad\'erse conditions. On the Q({^'S: of 

 the towpath it springs, but apparently 

 not because of the proximity of the 

 canal, but of the trampling of the track, 

 the grmding of coal-dust amongst it. the 



