GRASS. 



GOOSEFOOT {Chenopodium Bonus Henricus).~—GoOT>l>iY.SS. 



The people have given the name of their best beloved 

 King to a wholesome and useful plant, which grows within 

 their reach, and which, in some sort, seems to belong to 

 them exclusively. Le Bon Henri needs no cultivation in 

 France, but flourishes everywhere along walls and thickets. 

 It is at once the asparagus and spinach of the poor. Happy, 

 a thousand times, is the king who merits such a simple 

 homage ! 



GRASS.— Usefulness. 



The wisdom and beneficence of the great Creator of the 

 universe is most plainly seen in the way in which His creatures 

 are provided for. When the earth emerged from the abyss 

 of waters, then, first of all vegetable life. Grass was bid to 

 grow and clothe its surface. Then, when cattle, and fowls 

 of the air, and creeping things were created, it was declared 

 that for them was given every green herb for meat. Thus 

 has grass from the beginning been the principal supply for 

 them, and is the most common form of vegetation, whereon 

 the cattle upon a thousand hills have fed, and grown, and 

 multiplied, stocking the world with the vast amount of food 

 now required by the millions upon millions of human beings 

 who people it. What then can be more useful than grass 

 in its many varieties .' and what is more pleasing to look 

 upon than the verdure with which it clothes our hills and 



99 H 2 



