MOLINIA. 



289 



grass, forming the entire herbage between the stretches 

 of Heath and Ling. It grows in the same localities 

 which are selected by the Bog 

 Asphodel, and the golden 

 spikes of starry blossoms of 

 that lily-like plant contrast 

 charmingly with the sombre 

 purple plumes of the Mo- 

 linia. Or, when a late sea- 

 son throws back the grass 

 flowers, they may chance to 

 hang out their fringes of 

 dark anthers when the seed- 

 vessels of the Asphodel have 

 become as golden as their 

 blossoms were, with the add- 

 ed glory of a crimson tinge 

 like autumn sunset. 



The charm of contrast is the poor Molinia's only 

 charm. Its stems are too stiff and its purple florets too 

 dense for grace, when viewed as a solitary object ; and 

 its herbage is too hard and dry to tempt the taste of 

 cattle. The industrious fishermen of the Orkney and 

 Shetland Isles make ropes of its stems, and on the 

 English moors the poor make brooms of it, but these 

 are all the uses to which it can be adapted. 



Its foreign homes are Lapland, Sweden, Norway, and 

 nearly all Europe. 



It flowers in July, and ripens its seed in August. 



Molinia depauperata, Tawny Melick-grass, is a moun- 

 tain species only, growing in situations 3000 feet above 

 the sea-level. It is found among the Clova Mountains. 

 It is distinguished from M. ccerulea by the flowering 



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