It is often depicted with a flowing tail, which appendix attests close observation of nature; for the mino-game, as it is called, represents a tortoise to which, in the course of many scores of years, confcrvae have attached themselves so as to form an appendage of long green locks as the creature swims about.
The grass flames up on the hillsides like a spring fire--"et primitus oritur herba imbribus primoribus evocata"--as if the earth sent forth an inward heat to greet the returning sun; not yellow but green is the color of its flame;--the symbol of perpetual youth, the grass-blade, like a long green ribbon, streams from the sod into the summer, checked indeed by the frost, but anon pushing on again, lifting its spear of last year's hay with the fresh life below.
It makes a bold spreading mass of 2 to 3 feet, with hairy green or purple stems, and long green leaves which are rough on the upper side and hoary beneath; flowers violet-purple, from July to September.
The tree is a tall evergreen, which produces long green seed pods that look rather like round broad beans.