6o6 



THE NATURE BOOK 



it is equally a hedge grass, and, indeed, bearing disguise the Millet Grass, still 



met in the odd corners also. For grasses stiffly erect above the almost evergreen 



have a fashion of their own in often mass of blades. In the dry areas of the 



evading restrictions and turning up in out wood where the dead seeded capsules of 



of the ^ way places. The varieties of the the Campion tangle are aU that show of 



Brome family are many, 

 and this one is recognised 

 as having broad, long hairy 

 leaves with something of 

 the tufting character as 

 shown in the right-hand 

 specimen of the illustra- 

 tion. There are often late 

 flowering stems found in 

 the autumn, when the 

 blades have acquired that 

 duU brownish-green colour 

 that means stagnation in 

 the sap, and heralds the 

 fading into the bleached 

 whiteness of the winter 

 months. 



I think, perhaps, by 

 those who are genuine 

 wood-prowlers, who never 

 cease to find woods of in- 

 terest even in the winter, 

 and from sheer force of 

 habit turn up the familiar 

 tracks day by day, the 

 grasses can be studied to 

 purpose in their dry dead 

 state. 



When all the wood plants 

 have seeded, and a cool 

 moist silence pervades the 

 shelter of the trees, then 

 the dry grass-stems stand 

 u]) and take their part in 

 the uniform order of tilings. 

 Faint straw - colours, or 

 bleached greys, take the place of vivid 

 greens among the wet lea\'es. but the 

 inchvidual forms are aU stiU distinct, 

 although in shrunken condition. One 

 cannot mistake a stem of the Cocks- 



SLENDER FALSE BROME. 



its summer beauty, there 

 is the Slender False Brome 

 fringing the rabbit-holes. 

 Here and there a patch of 

 the Soft Grass shows still 

 bloomy in young shoots 

 that ha\-e ^'entured up 

 among the curled dry ones. 

 The Tufted Hair Grass, too, 

 in the wet hollo\\'S shows a 

 series of dry lance-like 

 stems, or the broken angles 

 of those subjected to acci- 

 dent. It is grass every- 

 where, sa\'e where the 

 dripping bracken and 

 bramble vines hold the 

 ground too densely. 



Tills accumulation of the 

 dead grasses above the 

 earth, and strong massing 

 of the fibrous rootstocks 

 below, acts most benefi- 

 cially for the protection of 

 numberless seedling plants 

 through the low tempera- 

 ture of winter nights. The 

 superficial mass of dry stuff 

 keeps the moisture from 

 e\-aporating, and consider- 

 ably modifies the bite of 

 cold. The exquisite green 

 leaves of the Wood Oxalis 

 keep their brilliancy often 

 throng h \\inter down 

 among the mosses at the 

 foot of dead grass ; and many an earth 

 bank facing to the cold winds on the out- 

 skirts of the wood has its plant world 

 comforted by the protection of the grasses. 

 Dead or alive, they are of value in the 



foot Grass that springs beside the grass grand economy of purpose that Nature 

 track for any other, nor does the autumn displays when left to its own ruling. 



Maud U. Clarke. 



