2 BRITISH GRASSES. 



their creeping habits to a great extent. The family is 

 numerous, and very widely distributed. Persoon's € Syn- 

 opsis ' contains 812 species, and Romer and Schultes 

 enumerate 1800. Their diffusion is coextensive with 

 the existence of vegetation. Travellers penetrating to 

 the South Shetland Isles find Aim antarctica flourish- 

 ing alone, and spreading its light panicles in a region 

 of " thick-ribbed ice ;" Agrostis algida was found by 

 Phipps on Spitzbergen ; and in Greenland and Iceland, 

 where there is scarcely light enough for the humblest 

 vegetables to flourish, Trisetum subspicatum not only 

 endures the sleet and bitter cold, and spreads its blos- 

 soms under such inhospitable circumstances, but actually 

 ripens abundance of seed. On the mountain ranges of 

 the south of Europe grasses ascend almost to the snow- 

 line, especially Poa disticha, P. malulensis, and P. dacty- 

 loides and Festuca dasyantha. Under the equator cha- 

 racteristic grades are found ; indeed, it is impossible to 

 find a climate to which they will not suit themselves. 

 They occur in every soil, in company and alone, often 

 covering large areas with a single species, or combin- 

 ing half-a-dozen in a square inch. Every kind of soil 

 has its special patrons in the family, but fewer species 

 favour sandy ground than other kinds. Some grow in 

 water, many in marsh and bog, but there are no marine 

 species. No matter how barren the spot, grasses of 

 some kind will establish themselves there ; the rocky 

 fissures have their fringe of feathery grasses, the tops of 

 walls or " dykes " are green with them, and the decay- 

 ing ruin is as surely decked with grass plumes as with 

 the soft drapery of moss and lichen. Dr. Deakin enu- 

 merates fifty-six species found by him on the ruins of the 

 Colosseum, and we can none of us call to mind a grey 



