PASTURE PROBLEMS: INDIGENOUS PLANTS IN 

 RELATION TO HABITAT AND SOWN SPECIES. 



By R. G. STAPLEDON, M.A., and T. J. JENKIN, B.Sc. 



{Advisers in Agricultural Botany, University Colleges of 

 Wales; Aberystwyth and Bangor.) 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



It is proposed in the present paper to trace {a) the relationship 

 that exists between the several indigenous plants that contribute to 

 the herbage of definite types of grassland ; (6) to follow the progressive 

 changes that occur on fields, down to grass for a varying number of 

 years, belonging to these types ; (c) to follow the competitive interaction 

 between sown and indigenous species ; and {d) to contrast the effect 

 on the herbage of continual mowing and continual grazing. 



The study of indigenous plants is an essentially local one, conse- 

 quently the data here presented are derived almost entirely from our 

 investigations in South and Mid Wales^, occasional examples only 

 being given from North Wales and the Cotswolds for the sake of com- 

 parison. 



A list of books and articles that we have consulted, as well as those 

 actually referred to in the text, is given at the end of the paper. 



II. METHODS OF STUDY. 



It is necessary first to recognise the salient types of grassland for 

 the area investigated and then, by employing a quahtative and quanti- 

 tative method of analysis, to obtain a numerical statement of the 

 various changes under review. The methods of analyses employed 



1 The subject has been briefly treated by Stapledon (15) elsewhere, and by Jenkin 

 in an unpublished thesis ("The Persistence of Sown Grasses and other Plants in Pastures") 

 presented for The Honours Degree at Aberystwyth, 1914. 



