GRASSES OF THE WOODS 



By MAUD U. CLARKE 



With Photographs by HENRY IRVING 



ADAPTATION to 



XA- locality being the 

 great law con- 

 cerning Nature, we al- 

 wa^'s find this response 

 shaping the species ac- 

 cortUng to the situation 

 or habitat, so that there 

 is an interweaving and 

 solidifying of the com- 

 pact. For the species 

 is moulded by the 

 habitat, and the habitat 

 in time is characterised 

 by the species. 



The sheltered slopes of 

 land that lie below the 

 ^\^ndy spaces of the hill- 

 tops present two im- 

 portant factors for 

 success in the life of 

 vegetation, warmth and 

 moisture. Here our 

 woods became estab- 

 lished in bulk, many 

 varieties of trees form- 

 ing dense belts of shelter 

 for lesser shrubs and 

 plants. The trees being 

 responsive to the condi- 

 tions of situation, formed 

 a habitat that reacted 

 upon the tribe dwelling 

 beneath them, and of 

 that tribe the Wood 

 Grasses form a distinct 

 family. Perhaps not 

 many ever consider the 

 Wood Grasses at all. 

 The trees stand first as 

 notable objects for ad- 

 miration; and the flower- 

 ing under-shrubs and 

 plants attract attention 



WOOD ME Lie. 

 60^ 



generally. Yet one can 

 scarcely turn in memory 

 to the woods without 

 recalling those broad 

 areas of green blades 

 that pierce the dry 

 leaves in spring, or the 

 handsome isolated 

 tussocks of grass that 

 thrive in the moist 

 shelter of trees. 



There is something 

 about a colony of the 

 Wood MeUc {Melica 

 uni flora) that at once 

 attracts the attention as 

 being grass, and yet in 

 a subtle way differing 

 from that of the open 

 spaces. Impressions are 

 sometimes exceedingly 

 difficult of exact ex- 

 planation ; yet one fact 

 concerning this grass 

 may offer somethuig to- 

 wards an explanation, 

 since it holds the leaf- 

 sheath closed after the 

 manner of the Sedges, 

 although in other re- 

 spects it is classed separ- 

 ately from them. 



In I\Iay and June, 

 when the wild hyacinths 

 are colouring the woods 

 with their pm-plo-blue, 

 the Wood IMelic raises 

 its slender flower stems 

 of few spikelets. The 

 stems are exceedingly 

 fine, trembling in any 

 draught of air that 

 filters through the 

 undergrowth, the whole 



