is the reason of the name. Cocksfoot is a tall and quick growing plant,
and both the stem and flower feel rough and hard. The blue-green leaves
are very juicy. The root goes deep into the soil, so that this grass
resists drought well.

We must notice the Sweet Vernal Grass, though there is not much of it in
the field; for this grass, when it is dry, gives out much of the sweet
scent we smell in or near a hay-field. If we chew a stalk, we notice the
scent ourselves, and animals like the pleasant flavour which it gives to
hay. Though it is an early grass it also lasts till late in the autumn.
The spikelets make a cluster or tail at the end of the stalk, but they
do not grow so closely together as those of the Timothy and Meadow
Foxtail.

Look at this Tufted Hair Grass. It is very pretty, perhaps one of the
prettiest grasses we have seen; but the farmer looks upon it as a weed.
It has a large and spreading head of flower; the spikelets grow on
stems, and become gradually smaller towards the top of the stalk. The
flower is purple, with a shining silvery light upon it. It grows in
thick clumps or tussocks, and cattle do not care about the leaves.




CHAPTER VIII

IN THE HAY-FIELD (_continued_)


There are many other grasses in the field; some of them are useful,