18 G 
GRASS. 
BY JAMES BUCKMAN, F.G.S., F.L.S., F.S.A., ETC., PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY 
AND BOTANY OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
“ He bringetli forth grass for the cattle, and green lierb for the service of 
men.”— Psalm civ. 14. 
HEN an untravelled Englishman takes his walk across 
the wide-stretched parks of his native land, or strolls 
over the green meadows of the nearest villag'e, or even if his 
view he confined to his garden lawn only, he will hardly be 
aware that the turfy carpet, to which he is so accustomed, 
cannot be equalled in the evenness and regularity of its pile, or 
the greenness of its colour, in any other country under the 
But should our countryman go abroad, he will hear on all 
sides from, those foreigners who may have visited England, the 
highest laudations of our parks and lawns ; and when he is 
weary of foreign scenes, and sighs for home, he may know, 
if he but carefully scrutinise his thoughts and feelings, that his 
native meadows more than all besides are at the bottom of his 
longings, as they afford that refreshing repose to the eye and 
peaceful calm to the mind, which cannot be found elsewhere in 
an equal degree. 
If again, our friend should inquire more deeply, and wish to 
know to what he is indebted for so much beauty, we could tell 
him that its immediate cause is an even, steady, luxuriant (but 
not rank) growth of a series of grasses, which know how to 
live side by side, each tending to the other’s good ; and while it 
is quite true that here and there may be seen some upstart 
kind trying to overtop the rest, and get a plot of ground all to 
itself, yet be sure there is no sweetness there, for even the quiet 
sheep would shun it. 
But there is yet something more. Our temperate climate, in 
spite of all that may be urged against its mist, its east winds, 
or drizzling rains, has not those extremes of heat or cold, 
of rain or drought, which belong to other countries, and which 
render that continued growth of turf that we enjoy impossible. 
sun. 
