History of a Sod. 373 
with double flowers, and one with awns, both of which are very 
uncoinraon. In some pastures, such as are not very moist, the 
statks are sometimes viviparous towards autumn; sometimes it 
produces scarcely any stem, and much foliage; at others, little 
foliage, and an abundance of flowering stems. It is a curious fact, 
that if we examine this same sod, having returned it again to the 
earth, in the next year, or in the year following, we shall in all 
probability find that an entire change of species has taken place. 
Some that are now luxuriant will then have degenerated, and some 
that are now weak will then have become entirely removed from 
the army of green blades. Why is this? It is found that if the 
grasses are kept close shaven to the ground, or are fed down, to 
use the agricultural phrase, this deterioration is avoided; whereas 
it is almost sure to follow if the herb is allowed to run to seed. 
It is a sort of natural rotation. Changes in the soil very probably 
take place which are favorable to the other varieties, but detri- 
mental, or less favorable to these; and the natural consequence is, 
that the healthiest wins the field. 
Let us lay the ^J-ass stem under the knife. On removing its 
leaves from the glistening surface of the stem, they will be found 
attached at their base to a joint, which they also partly embrace. 
What are these joints? Passing the knife through the stem, it is 
found that -it has this striking difference from other plants: it is a 
hollow tube, and at each joint a sort of diaphragm or cross parti- 
tion is stretched so as to divide the stem into a number of closed 
cylinders, each having no connection whatever with the one above 
or below. This is exactly the structure of a bamboo. It is on 
this account that a great botanist has declared that our tiny inha- 
bitants of the sod, which we have been wont to despise and trample 
under foot, belong to a noble family, which undtr favoring in- 
fluences of sun and warmth, carry their heads near ten times higher 
in the heavens than we ourselves — these are the bamboos. In his 
own words — the words of Nees Von Esenbeck — grasses are but 
dwarf bamboos. The microscope only can reveal the true beauty 
and structure of the minute flowers which adorn the lowly grasses. 
Thus examined, they present a pleasing and interesting study. 
Every one must have seen the curious little spikelets of the brome, 
or meadow grasses; and the attentive eye will have marked here 
and there a yellow stamen peeping out of its unattractive flower. 
The microscope, or a good lens, reveals the fact, that every spikelet 
is made up of many flowers beautifully arranged together, as if 
they were the coverings of one which does not appear. Each 
little flower consists of a couple of tiny scales, supporting the 
hairs or bristles with which we are so familiar. These little scales 
— technically, fcdeoi — cover two other smaller scales, which ap- 
pear to be the rudimentary calyx or corolla of the flower; and 
