44 BRITISH GRASSES. 



Ocean. Its seeds contribute essentially to the support 

 of the wandering tribes of Indians, and feed immense 

 flocks of swans, geese, and other wildfowl, which resort 

 there for the purpose of breeding. Productive as is 

 this excellent plant, and habituated to an ungenial cli- 

 mate, and to situations which refuse all culture, it is 

 surprising, says Pinkerton, that the European settlers in 

 the more northern part of America have as yet taken 

 no pains to cultivate and improve a vegetable produc- 

 tion which seems intended by nature to become, at some 

 future period, the bread-corn of the North." 



And if such a plant continue thus unknown and dis- 

 regarded, why may not such be the case with many 

 others? We rejoice and are thankful for our wheat 

 and oats and barley, our Indian corn and maize, our 

 sugar-cane and our rich stores of rice, but as man in- 

 creases and multiplies on earth, and carries his increased 

 intelligence and enterprise into every corner of the 

 globe, who shall say that new species of cereals shall 

 not be discovered, to pour, as from added tributaries, 

 fresh streams of life-giving power into the granaries of 

 the world ? 



Let our thankfulness be deep and true to Him who 

 giveth us fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with joy and 

 gladness, who, despite the unbelieving fears of men, 

 controls the elements, and checks. the ravages of insect 

 and of blight, so that our harvests fail not and our poor 

 perish not for lack of bread ! Vain indeed would be the 

 glory of the ancestral oaks, the pride of English park 

 and forest ; vain even the wooden walls of old England, 

 if the humble grasses should fail to produce their bread 

 for the use of man, and their green herbage for the 

 sustenance of the herds and flocks. 



