THE STORY OF A BLADE OF GRASS. 
7 
Aira antardica blooms alone in a region of “thick- 
ribbed ice ” and in the far north, in Iceland, Greenland, 
and the extreme latitude of 70^°, Trisetum suhsjpicatum , 
which has perhaps a greater geographical range than 
any plant with which we are acquainted, braves the 
sleet and darkness, and during the short Arctic summer 
puts forth its pretty blossoms, and ripens abundance of 
seeds. 
In the exercise of that spirit of thankful affection, 
with which the true naturalist surveys the world around 
him, the universality of grass is a fact accepted as a dis¬ 
tinct teaching of the kindly regard'for the happiness of 
all creatures, which is so prominent a feature in the plan 
of creation. In herbage and grain the grasses furnish 
a larger amount of sustenance to animal life than all 
other tribes of plants together; and so profusely have 
they been shed abroad in every conceivable variety, as 
climate, soil, and situation may influence their growth, 
that the earth has taken their colouring for a garment, 
and presents a firmament of green almost as unbroken 
as the upper firmament of blue, which is the only other 
prevailing tint in Nature. No matter how elevated or 
how barren the spot, grasses of some kind will make 
themselves a home in it; and when every variety of soil 
and climate has been furnished with its appropriate 
kinds, others find for themselves sites in water, carpeting 
the bed of the brook, or binding the shingle together on 
the shore of the sea; others on ruins, house-tops, and 
subterranean retreats, if but a glimpse of daylight reach 
them. In that remarkable work, “The Flora of the 
Colosseum/' in which Dr. Deakin has described 420 
