202 Sharp-edged Grasses. 



above the hedge, it resembles a tiara — a green ch'cle 

 at the bottom of the dome, and two circles of gems 

 above. 



Some of the grasses growing by the hedge are not 

 to be handled carelessly, the edge of the long blade 

 cutting like a lancet : the awn-like seeds of others, 

 if tlie}^ should chance to get into the mouth, as 

 happens occasionally to the haymakers, work down 

 towards the throat, the attempt to get rid of them 

 causing a creeping motion the opposite way. This 

 is owing to the awns all slanting in one direction. 



On the sultry afternoons of the latter part of the 

 summer the hedge is all but silent. Waiting in the 

 gateway there is no sound for half an hour at a time, 

 no call or merry song in the branches, nothing but 

 the buzz of flies. The birds are quiet, or nearly so : 

 they slip about so noiselessly that it is difficult to 

 observe them, so that many perhaps migrate before 

 it is suspected, and others stay on when thought to 

 be gone. In the grass the grasshoppers make their 

 hiss, and towards evening the 3'ellow-hammers utter 

 a few notes ; but while the corn is being reaped the 

 meadows are all but still. 



