Grasse

“ The manufacture of soaps, wax, oil products, and candles also form a considerable industry, and the general aspect of Grasse is quite as prosperous, indeed more so, than if it were dependent on the butterfly tourists of the coast towns.
The streets of the town rise and fall in bewildering fashion. They are badly laid out, in many cases, and dark and gloomy, but they are nevertheless picturesque to a high degree; a sort of négligé picturesqueness, which does not necessarily mean dirty or squalid. ”

“ At Grasse, they graft the young trees at the age of five or six years, in spring time, when the sap mounts, and when the bark is easily detached. They choose the graft from the gourmand shoots of two years old, the wood well grown and bark smooth; selecting those in which the eyes are well marked. According to the size of the branch, or of the trunk of the tree, they place two scions judiciously. The scions having been placed, the whole is enveloped with clay, and confined with a bandage. The best time is the spring, when the trees are always large and full of branches ”

“ The Cathedral of Grasse is of singularly uncouth Gothic, of the twelfth century, with huge drums of pillars, and the crudest of vaulting without any moulding being afforded to the ribs. Grasse possessed formerly a very curious feature, shared with Vence, of having the choir for bishop and chapter in the west gallery, over the porch. As this was so exceptional, and as the early apse would not admit of seats for the chapter, a late bishop built out a hideous structure behind the high altar to accommodate himself and the clergy. ”

“ Marie de Grasse, the daughter of Pierre de Grasse, who was a brother of the famous Admiral Comte de Grasse, the intimate friend of La Fayette, whose patriotism, like his own, was devoted to the American cause. Her parents left France in the seventeenth century, and established themselves in a country home not far from Albany. My grandmother was very beautiful, and retained her beauty to an advanced age, and it is from her we take the name of De Grasse. ”

“ Large and as lasting as thy peirch<41.7> of grasse,
Bid us lay in 'gainst winter raine, and poize
Their flouds with an o'erflowing glasse. ”

“ It is nothing in itself, but as a link in a chain it mends a break. There was one fact, however, at wide variance with the theory of the identity of the two men. Wood is of ordinary build, with black hair and smooth-shaven face. Grasse is described as very stout, with red hair and whiskers. ”

“ When two feet high the young plant is grafted and transplanted to the open ground—ground well exposed to the sun and sheltered from the cold winds. It flourishes best in the neighborhood of Grasse and Cannes. ”

“ In this way it is very extensively cultivated at Cannes and Grasse, in the south of France; the plants are set in rows, fully exposed to the sun; they come into full bearing the second year after grafting; the blossoms, which are very large and intensely fragrant, are produced from July till the end of October, but those of August and September are the most odoriferous. ”

“ In this sense, the Clans of the Grass are not only the grasses of the pasture, the sand-dune, the windy down, not only the sorrel-red meadow-grass or the delicate quaking-grass, but all the humbler greengrowth which covers the face of the earth. ”

“ Thus we find grasses most important to man and beast, and, though humble in name, distinguished in beauty and grace, varying but slightly in general characteristics, and therefore easy to study, changing little by time, and so easy to preserve. Dear public, deign to look upon modest worth; take a little pains and trouble, and let our Grasses have a fair share of attention. ”

“ It is hard to decide which is most beautiful, the view of the mouth of the ravine, with the waterfall foaming down the cliff beside it, as seen from the hill-side as the
Cascade, Gorge Of Loup
Fall In The Gorge Of The Loup
train swings down from the direction of Nice, or whether from the side approached from Grasse, whence up the Gorge is obtained a glimpse of snowy peaks. There are views one sees that never leave one, that fix themselves in the mind indelibly; and the view of the mouth of the Loup Gorge is certainly one such scene. ”

“ Slender grasses, branched round about with slenderer boughs, each tipped with pollen and rising in tiers cone-shaped—too delicate to grow tall—cluster at the base of the mound. They dare not grow tall or the wind would snap them. A great grass, stout and thick, rises three feet by the hedge, with a head another foot nearly, very green and strong and bold, lifting itself right up to you; you must say, "What a fine grass!" Grasses whose awns succeed each other alternately ”

“ Grasses are not characteristic, and there is no sward, even in oases; but certain grasses grow in the shadow of the arborescent tufts and in the fields of the farmer ants, or spring up in scattered blades over the moister portions of the surface. ”

“ Most grasses will be found to be of a social character, and do best in a large mixture with other varieties.
In forming a mixture for pasture grasses, the peculiar qualities of each species should, therefore, be regarded: as the time of flowering, the habits of growth, the soil and location on which it grows best, and other characteristics. ”

“ Grasses are becoming tall and cane-like and do not cover the ground with their leaves as at the North. Strange plants are crowding about me now. Scarce a familiar face appears among all the flowers of the day’s walk.
September 29. To-day I met a magnificent grass, ten or twelve feet in stature, with a superb panicle of glossy purple flowers. Its leaves, too, are of princely mould and dimensions. Its home is in sunny meadows and along the wet borders of slow streams and swamps. It seems to be fully aware of its high rank, and waves with the grace and solemn majesty of a mountain pine. ”

“ The thin grasses, more or less coating the hill, were touched by the wind in breezes of differing powers, and almost of differing natures—one rubbing the blades heavily, another raking them piercingly, another brushing them like a soft broom. ”

“ Even in Britain alone, with our poor little insular flora, a mere fragment of that belonging to the petty European Continent, we number no less than forty-two genera of grasses, distributed into more than one hundred species. In fact, what may fairly be called degradation from one point of view may fairly be called adaptation from another. The organization of the grasses is certainly lower than that of the lilies, but it fits them better for that station of life to which it has pleased Nature to assign them. ”

“ Considering their multifarious uses as fodder and food, for brewing, weaving, building and a thousand other purposes, it is perhaps not too much to say that if every other species of plant were displaced by grasses of all kinds—as many indeed gradually are—man would still be able to supply his chief needs from them. ”

“ But I walk encouraged between the tufts of Purple Wood-Grass, over the sandy fields, and along the edge of the Shrub-Oaks, glad to recognize these simple contemporaries. With thoughts cutting a broad swathe I "get" them, with horse-raking thoughts I gather them into windrows. The fine-eared poet may hear the whetting of my scythe. These two were almost the first grasses that I learned to distinguish, for I had not known by how many friends I was surrounded,—I had seen them simply as grasses standing. The purple of their culms also excites me like that of the Poke-Weed stems. ”

“ Grasses occupy wide tracts of land and they are evenly distributed in all parts of the world. They occur in every soil, in all kinds of situations and under all climatic conditions. In certain places grasses form a leading feature of the flora. As grasses do not like shade, they are not usually abundant within the forests either as regards the number of individuals, or of species. But in open places they do very well and sometimes whole tracts become grass-lands. ”

“ He carefully gets the meadow hay and the more nutritious grasses which grow next to that, but he leaves this fine purple mist for the walker’s harvest,—fodder for his fancy stock. Higher up the hill, perchance, grow also Blackberries, John’s-Wort, and neglected, withered, and wiry June-Grass. How fortunate that it grows in such places, and not in the midst of the rank grasses which are annually cut! Nature thus keeps use and beauty distinct. I know many such localities, where it does not fail to present itself annually, and paint the earth with its blush. ”

“ If all the shoots have flowering stems in them, and are evidently of the current year, the grass is an annual; but if any shoots have leaves only, it is either biennial or perennial: to determine which is not always easy, but in perennial grasses there will generally be evident remains of older leaf-bases and shoots, and if there are distinct underground stolons or creeping rhizomes as well the point may be considered decided, and the grass is perennial, as is the case with most of our important species. ”

“ In some localities along the south coast the grasses grow in splendid luxuriance, much of the grass being six feet high. On the higher elevations and in exposed places the grass is often too low for hay making but is admirable for grazing, the cattle that eat it growing very fat. ”

“ As we passed through the field in which there had been meadow this year, my uncle made me observe what a fine growth had sprung up since it was mowed; the after-grass he called it. I asked, did he not consider the grasses as amongst some of the most useful plants?
He said, “The tribe of grasses yield more sustenance to man, and to the larger animals, than all the rest of the vegetable kingdom put together. ”

“ The grasses are essentially a clothing for healthy and pure ground, watered by occasional rain, but in itself dry, and fit for all cultivated pasture and corn. They are distinctively plants with round and jointed stems, which have long green flexible leaves, and heads of seed, independently emerging from them. The sedges are essentially the clothing of waste and more or less poor or uncultivated soils, coarse in their structure, frequently triangular in stem—hence called "acute" by Virgil—and with their heads of seed not extricated from their leaves. ”

“ Grasses and sedges are some of the "green things" that need but little encouragement. In fact, they grow to greatest size in some neglected fence corner or in places so wet that other plants do not flourish. Grasses lack the bright colors of flowers, but they are fine studies to draw, because of their simple, direct growth and the interesting shapes of their leaves and heads.
You will enjoy brush drawings, using color or ink, of different kinds of grasses. ”

“ Then there are other grasses, which are richly marked with shades of dark red or purple, displaying masses of these tints when seen from a little distance. The shorter grasses are not less beautiful than the taller species just mentioned ”

“ Grasses of highly nourishing qualities grow luxuriantly, furnishing excellent grazing facilities. The climate does not admit of the ripening of oats or the curing of hay, but grass can be stored in silos for winter. ”

“ On dry hills a close tufted grass, with setaceous leaves, and in rich soils creeping and luxuriant with broad leaves. It is one of the few grasses that thrive in wet soils.
The chief points in the flat-leafed forms are the thin, dry leaves, rough on both sides and on the margins, with distinct raised ridges, and the base of the leaf narrowing suddenly into its insertion with the sheath, with no auricle, but with a long membranous ligule. The sheath not coloured, and the blade convolute. ”

“ With the development of the bunch-grasses and the resulting competition all of the blow-out grasses disappear, and then with the incoming of the characteristic members of the bunch-grass association, the change from blow-out to hillside is complete. ”

“ Besides the change due to roads, fences, drains, and farm buildings, the very grasses themselves are growing unnaturally. The farmer has selected and sown what he thinks best.
218 He is obliged to do so, because grasses vary so much. Some of them shoot up quickly and die after the first year. Others live for two years, whilst a great many bide their time, developing very slowly, and not reaching their full growth until the fourth or fifth year. ”

“ Ridges are less prominent in Phleum pratense, Briza, Agropyrum, Triodia, Arrhenatherum avenaceum.
Leaves practically devoid of ridges.
26
In some grasses the tissue over the mid-rib is considerably raised and strengthened on the dorsal side of the blade as a “keel."
Keel more or less prominent.
Most grasses are glabrous, but there are a number in which hairs are nearly always a prominent feature. It must be remarked, however, that with grasses, as with other plants, the character of pubescence is apt to vary with the situation. ”

“ The study of grasses would be of great consequence to a northerly and grazing kingdom. The botanist that could improve the sward of the district where he lived would be an useful member of society; to raise a thick turf on a naked soil would be worth volumes of systematic knowledge ”

“ Our Grasses are highly interesting; there are varieties that are wholly new to me, and when dried form the most elegant ornaments to our chimney-pieces, and would look very graceful on a lady's head; only fashionists always prefer the artificial to the natural.
One or two species of grass that I have gathered bear a close but of course minute resemblance to the Indian corn, having a top feather and eight-sided spike of little grains disposed at the sidejoints. ”