History of a Sod. 371 
survived, for some were too delicately appetized to exist on the 
thin face of their new cradle, and became rapidly choked by those 
sturdy rustics who were content with a draught of rain (contain- 
infT a fraction of ammonia), and with such a minute amount of 
alkalies as was left by the mosses and lichens in their decaying 
remains. A wiry vegetation was now busy in constructing the 
foundation of the future sod. Little rootlets, tough as cords, and 
pushing themselves in every direction, bound together the loose 
and incoherent mass of decaying tissues, sand, and degraded soil, 
which the previous occupants had left behind them. The rock 
itself suffers change. Water and carbonic acid attack it, and it 
slowly crumbles. The plants now formed help the work; they ap- 
propriate its ingredients; the depth of soil increases. It has also 
become richer; consequently a better class of plants can live 
thereon. Now the hardy constitutioned wiry grass either dies of 
too much food, or is choked in retribution by the decendants of 
those which it formerly killed. The soft green blades of fragrant 
grasses come up, and paint the once gray and dreary landscape in 
the most refreshing colors. Year succeeds to year; the winter 
kills some; the sprihg awakens others; and the summer ripens the 
seeds of a multitude of grasses which the autumn shakes to the 
earth, and by its heavy rains, causes to take root in the soil. 
Layer after liayer of roots overtops the last. All traces of the 
early mosses are lost in the brown humus at the bottom, so that 
one could scarcely form even a conjecture as to how the work 
began. 
But possibly our sod has been taken from a rich meadow, lying 
along the sides of a deep inland-penetrating stream, thick, rank, 
and luxurious, with crowding blades and towering stems. This 
green meadow was once a quiet lake, or perhaps a part of a more 
tumultuous sea. From those "heaven-kissing hills" which form 
the rough, uneven outline of the horizon, and from which the 
stream takes origin, centuries have washed down tons upon tons 
of alluvial soil. The waters of the lake grew shallow, aquatic 
plants fringed its edges, and assisted the process. The waters 
sank, the land rose. No sooner did it appear above the surface, 
than, as if with wings, the seeds of numberless grasses and other 
plants flew thither, and rapidly colonized the Spot. But though 
the surface looked quietly green, much time must elapse before 
the due thickness of a sod is formed. Many a contest also will 
take place between sturdy docks, and noisome weeds, and the 
sweet-leafed grass, before the latter gains the entire supremacy; 
and in fact this it never absolutely succeeds in effecting without 
aid from man. In a few years this work, too, is completed, and 
the surface over which in bygone times the ripple rolled, or the 
billow heaved, now rejoices in a waving garment of the freshest 
green. 
