Its seed is like that of oats.It is an unhappy-looking grass,if grass it be.Spaniard,which I have mentioned before,is simply detestable;it has a strong smell,half turpentine half celery.It is sometimes called spear-grass,and grows to about the size of a mole-hill,all over the back country everywhere,as thick as mole-hills in a very mole-hilly field at home.Its blossoms,which are green,insignificant,and ugly,are attached to a high spike bristling with spears pointed every way and very acutely;each leaf terminates in a strong spear,and so firm is it,that if you come within its reach,no amount of clothing about the legs will prevent you from feeling its effects.I have had my legs marked all over by it.Horses hate the spaniard--and no wonder.In the back country,when travelling without a track,it is impossible to keep your horse from yawing about this way and that to dodge it,and if he encounters three or four of them growing together,he will jump over them or do anything rather than walk through.A kind of white wax,which burns with very great brilliancy,exudes from the leaf.There are two ways in which spaniard may be converted to some little use.The first is in kindling a fire to burn a run:a dead flower-stalk serves as a torch,and you can touch tussock after tussock literally [Greek text which cannot be reproduced]lighting them at right angles to the wind.The second is purely prospective;it will be very valuable for planting on the tops of walls to serve instead of broken bottles:not a cat would attempt a wall so defended.
Snow-grass,tussock grass,spaniard,rushes,swamps,lagoons,terraces,meaningless rises and indentations of the ground,and two great brown grassy mountains on either side,are the principal and uninteresting objects in the valley through which we were riding.I despair of giving you an impression of the real thing.It is so hard for an Englishman to divest himself,not only of hedges and ditches,and cuttings and bridges,but of all signs of human existence whatsoever,that unless you were to travel in similar country yourself you would never understand it.