80 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. 
oat-grass (Arrhenatherum avenaceum, Beauv.) will still 
please with its slender, graceful panicle; close by, the 
velvet-grass (Holcus lanatus, L.) will attract by its pale 
color and soft-downy appearance; on the edge of the 
thicket where we first found it a dozen years ago or 
more, we shall still hope to find Brachyelytrum arista- 
tum, Beauv. 
In their structure the grasses form an isolated fam- 
ily, showing close relationship to the sedges only, but 
differing from them in the structure of the fruit and 
the embryo. About eighty species of sedges have been 
thus far discovered in the county. Unlike the grasses, 
the sedges are of little use for food or in the arts. 
Mingled with grasses, for which they are easily mis- 
taken, the sedges are sometimes eaten by cattle, but 
are lacking in those valuable properties which render 
the various grasses so useful to man. Lacking those 
qualities which attract attention to the more favored 
family, these perform, we are warranted in believing it, 
no mean part in the economy of Nature. In some 
parts of the world, especially in Europe, they are of 
great use in binding the sands of the sea shore so that 
the strong sea gales cannot blow the sand of the dunes 
inland. 
Some of the sedges are among the earliest flowers 
of spring, others fill up the long summer days, few 
linger into the autumn. They are mostly distinguished 
