Grassland

“ Other societies, such as peat-moss, thickets, and woods, try to drive out the grasses and cover that particular place in its stead. The Grassland companions are also always trying to take up new ground, and to cover over any which is not strongly held by other plants. ”

“ But over parts of the globe the climate, and especially the amount or distribution of the rainfall, makes it difficult or impossible for forests to grow naturally. Here other types of plants, lower in stature, and evading rather than facing the problems of winter cold or summer drought, flourish and form what we call the grasslands. The grasslands favour man in several respects. They feed the animals upon which he depends for food, for clothing, and for the conveyance of his person or property, and they offer much less resistance than the forest to his agricultural operations. ”

“ We see in grasslands a plant response to rainfall and other climatic conditions which, with a little more rainfall, or in locally wet places, always produces woody growth, either as tongues of woods in river bottoms or the parklike landscape, already mentioned. ”

“ Here, as in the other grasslands of the world, if a local water supply above the general requirements of the grass exists, there is always a small element of woody plants, low, thick-leaved shrubs usually, but where water is more plentiful, trees, as in the region in Natal, already mentioned, and in many other parts of the world, notably parts of Australia, China, Brazil, and many sections of the western part of the United States. ”

“ In nearly every region in the world there is an absence of forests and a replacement of them by grasslands, where the rainfall is less than about twenty-five inches a year, and where the winter winds, often far below the freezing point, are hostile to trees. ”

“ We walk to the water's edge and here he shows me Green scum, or stalks, or sedges, grasses, shrubs, That yield to trees beyond the levels, where The beech and oak have triumph; for along This gradual growth from algae, reeds and grasses, That builds the soil against the water's hands, All things are fierce for place and garner life From weaker things. And then he shows me root stocks, And Alpine willow, growths that sneak and crawl Beneath the soil. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Flora and Fauna.—The soil of the peninsula is remarkably fertile both in the plains and on the mountain slopes. In the vast forests the decay of vegetable matter during countless ages has enriched the soil to the depth of many feet, and from it springs the most marvellous tangle of huge trees, shrubs, bushes, underwood, creepers, climbing plants and trailing vines, the whole hung with ferns, mosses, and parasitic growths, and bound together by rattans and huge rope-like trailers. ”

“ When we speak of grass we generally mean [Pg 29] one thing, the small slim green herb which carpets the familiar earth. But there are many grasses, from the smooth close-set herb of our lawns or the sheep-nibbled downy greenness of mountain-pastures, to the forest-like groves which sway in the torrid winds of the south. Of these alone much might be written. I prefer, however, that name I have placed at the head of this article—taken, if I remember rightly, from a poem by the Gaelic mountain-poet, Duncan Ban Macintyre—and used in the sense of the original. ”

“ Sometimes in such arid dry countries, a small spring of water will form around itself a refreshing oasis of greenery surrounded everywhere by dreary thorn-scrub or monotonous sand. All the plants in such a spot have their own special work to do: the graceful trees which shade the spring, the green mosses on the stones, the fresh grass and bright flowers or waving reeds, are all associated in a common work. They protect and shelter each other; their dead leaves are used to form soil; their roots explore and break up the ground. ”

“ The cool shades of the forest give rise to moist beds and currents of air, and the sod of grasses and the various flowering plants and shrubs thus fostered, together with the network and sponge of tree roots, absorb and hold back the rain and the waters from melting snow, compelling them to ooze and percolate and flow gently through the soil in streams that never dry. ”

“ The land covered with beautiful grass, with sheep lying about upon it, as fat as hogs stretched out sleeping in a stye. Everything grows well here: earth without a stone so big as a pin's head; grass as thick as it can grow on the ground. ”

“ The cleared land with its yellow harvest or green, growing crops, and neat dead-wood fences and bushes of luxuriant sweet-briar, and perhaps a garden and green English trees, make a foreground to a forest of gum-trees and wattles, which has been thinned but not cleared by fire, or by cutting a deep ring through the bark of the trees, for the sake of the scanty brown grass underneath, which their shade and growth make still more scanty. ”

“ The scrub shows no turfy greensward; grasses, which elsewhere carpet the ground, were almost unknown till introduced from Europe; in the wild lands, bushes, and undershrubs of ancient aspect cover the soil, remarkable for their stiff, dry, wiry foliage, their vertically instead of horizontally flattened leaves, and their general dead blue-green or glaucous colour. Altogether, the vegetation itself, though it contains a few more modern forms than the animal world, is still essentially antique in type, a strange survival from the forgotten flora of the chalk age, the oolite, and even the lias. ”

“ No breath stirred strong enough to lift the petals of the gorse-blossoms by the wall, or rustle the wayside plants. The only movement came from a field of long grass on the slope—one of the pattern of fields, newly-ploughed, short-turfed, or misted with green from the three-weeks-old corn springing a few inches high, a pattern that lay like a coverlet drawn over the rounded flank of the hill. And over that one field movement was busy—the rank grass was exactly the length, density, texture, to respond to what imperceptible breath there was, and that grass only. ”

“ Again, wherever the soil breaks out in simple blue country, whether in the river shore, or the broken roadside bank, or the plowed field, in nine cases out of ten it is excessively warm in its color, being either gravel or clay, the black vegetable soil never remaining free of vegetation. The warm [Pg 129] tone of these beds of soil is an admirable relief to the blue of the distances, which we have taken as the distinctive feature of the country, tending to produce the perfect light without which no landscape can be complete. ”

“ In speaking of grasses, we are apt to think only of the grass in the meadows, which is the food for our horses and cattle; but there are other kinds of grasses which are just as important to man as the grass of the meadow is to the beast. These are oats, rye, barley, wheat, corn, and others, all of which belong to the grass family.
Perhaps it appears strange to you to hear wheat and corn called grass, and you ask how can that be.
In the first place, all plants that have the same general form and method of growth, belong to the same family. ”

“ The ray grass that grows wild is stated to be much superior to that which is obtained by cultivation; and we are informed that, if sown in a rich and fertile soil, it will dwindle in a few years to a poor and insignificant grass. ”

“ Yes, it is grass, but the grass has a flower as well as a rose bush or a violet-plant. It is only because the grass is kept cut short that you do not see its flower on a lawn. If grass is not cut, or eaten by animals, it grows tall in spring; then in May or June you would see the flowers on tall straight stems which stand among the blades of grass. Many of these grass flowers are very beautiful and we will look presently at some of them in one of the farmer's fields. ”

“ There is very little vegetation, only a few streaks and bunches of grass that grow along the cracks in the rocky surface, or in wind-carried soil that has been caught in crevices. It is one of the wildest places you can imagine, and as we go upward it becomes more so. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Here was a valley stretching four miles east and west, and about eight miles north and south, left with the richest soil to its own wild growth of grass—which in civilization would have been a most valuable meadow for the rearing of cattle—invested as it was by dense forests, darkening the horizon at all points of the compass, and folded in by tree-clad ridges. ”

“ Grass walks are made in the same way as grass lawns. When the space to be thus occupied is prepared, a thin layer of sand or poor earth is laid upon the surface and over this a similar layer of good soil. This arrangement is adopted in order to prevent excessive luxuriance in the grass. In many modern gardens pathways made of old paving stones lead from the house to different parts. They give an old-fashioned and restful appearance to a garden, and in the interstices charming little plants like thyme, Ionopsidium acaule, &c., are allowed to grow. ”

“ If the water content is too good or the clay is too sticky the land is generally put into grass.
Fig. 37. Hill slope near Harpenden. Woodland at the top, arable land lower down. In the valley there is grass land but this is hidden by the cottages
Plants require to be sufficiently warm. Some like tropical heat and can only be grown in hot houses; others can withstand a certain amount of cold and will grow up on the mountains. Our common cultivated crops come in between and will not grow in too cold or exposed a situation; thus you find very little cultivated land 800 ft. ”

“ Dew and sweet green grass were the more beautiful because of the knowledge that the high hills around were covered by sun-dried, wiry heather. River-side mead, dew-laden grass, and sparkling stream were like an oasis in the dry desert. They refreshed the heart to look upon as water refreshes the weary. The shadows were more marked and defined than they are as day advances, the hues of the flowers brighter, for the dew was to shadow and flower as if the colours of the artist were not yet dry. Humble-bees went down with caution into the long grass, not liking to wet their wings. ”

“ Much is to be expected from scientific agriculturists; but Nature so absolutely, in general, accommodates each grass to its own soil and station, that nothing is more difficult than to overcome their habits, insomuch that few grasses can be generally cultivated at pleasure. ”

“ When the young grass throws up its leaves into the air, from which it derives so much of its nourishment, it throws down its roots into the soil in quest of food of another kind. The leaves may be mown or cropped by animals, and carried off the field, but the roots remain in the soil, and, as they die, gradually fill its upper part with vegetable matter. ”

“ Grass is a product that can be cultivated as truly as the most delicate and fastidious of fruits, and I had the lawn is mind when I urged the generous initial deep plowing and enriching. Nothing that grows responds more promptly to good treatment than grass; but a fine lawn cannot be created in a season, any more than a fine tree.
We will suppose that the spring plantings of trees have been made with open spaces reserved for the favorite games. Now the ground can be prepared for grass-seed, for it need not be trampled over any more. ”

“ But the grass is still green, and the trees thick with foliage, the fields neatly ploughed and tilled and cultivated, with here and there a staring notice planted on the edge of a field, where the long, straight drills are sprinkled with budding green—'Crops sown. ”

“ Some of these are very tall plants, but the seeds of them are small in proportion, and not useful for food. But there is yet another kind of grasslike plants common among us.
Geo. What is that?
Tut. Have you not observed in the marshes, and on the sides of ditches, a coarse broader-leaved sort of grass with large dark-coloured spikes? This is sedge, in Latin carex, and there are many sorts of it.
Har. What is that good for?
Tut. It is eaten by cattle, both fresh and dry, but is inferior in quality to good grass.
Geo. What is it that makes one kind of grass better than another? ”

“ Vast waves of undulating meadow and farm land appear with fields of gleaming grain and clamps of elm, oak and maple to break its smoothly flowing billows. Farther away rise higher treeless ridges or wooded slopes, but all alike are smoothly flowing. ”

“ Tall, nutritious grasses are specially abundant beneath them, growing over all the ground, in sunshine and shade, over extensive areas like a farmer's crop, and serving as pasture for the multitude of sheep that are driven from the arid plains every summer as soon as the snow is melted. ”