WASTE PLACES 



'■SI 



by w'nid, as Mouse-ear Chickwecd, Goutweed 

 (flattened fruits), Stinking; Mayweed (wint^^ed 

 achenes), Tansy (acliene membranous), 

 Groundsel, Musk Thistle, Spear Thistle, Milk 

 Thistle, Chicory, Hawksbeard, Knottjrass, 

 Dock, Wall Barley. 



The burs of Burdock are hooked and catch 

 in the wool of sheep, and on recoilinj^ are shot 

 to a distance away. Hound's Tongue, Bitter- 

 sweet, and Belladonna, are also dispersed by 

 animal agency. 



The Soil of Waste Places. — The artificial 

 character of waste ground to some extent 

 causes the plants that colonize it to become 

 independent of soil conditions. The variety 

 of habitat ensures the variety in the soil as a 

 whole. The proximity of some types of habi- 

 tat to farmyards, and manure heaps in parti- 

 cular, and the dominance of luxuriant, sturdy 

 weeds upon them, may be due to the ousting 

 of weaklings, or to the antipathy of other 

 plants for richness of soil with abundance of 

 nitrogenous materials. 



Quarries cut out of solid rock are excavated 

 in various rocks giving diverse types of soil, 

 and the alien plants grow upon the waste 

 materials, which have little effect upon them 

 apparently. 



By f;ir the greater number of waste-ground 

 plants described in this chapter are usually 

 found upon sandy or loamy soils. A few re- 

 quire some proportion of humus whilst toler- 

 ating a sandy soil. These are, in general, 

 hedgerow plants, as Greater Celandine. Some 



require clay or humus, as Goutweed, Spear 

 Thistle (clay or sand), Purple Dead Nettle 

 (clay). White Dead Nettle (clay or sand). Dairy 

 Maid's Dock (clay or humus). 



•Stork's Bill and Hound's Tongue, wliilst 

 growing on sandy soil, are frequently Halo- 

 phytes, growing on sandy coasts in many dis- 

 tricts. Viper's Bugloss, Creepingand Common 

 Toadflax, grow also upoji chalk or limestone, 

 but on waste ground frequently upon sand. 



Methods of Survey. — Owing to the ephemeral 

 character of waste ground there is not the 

 same necessity to map exactly the vegetation 

 of such tracts where plants vary from year to 

 year, e.g. gardens, &c. But certain places are 

 more permanent than others, and in such cases 

 a surve}' may be made, as in the case of pas- 

 tures and meadows. 



The mode of studying hedgerows near vil- 

 lages is similar to th.it of hedgerows in general 

 (see Section VI). Sandy wastes may, how- 

 ever, be carefully surveyed, square by square, 

 as in the case of fields and other permanent 

 continuous types of vegetation. 



Cart-roads can be dealt with in the same 

 ways as roads, the casuals being especially 

 noted. Railway embankments, canal banks, 

 may be treated much in the same wa}' as pas- 

 tures, but the actual occurrence of the casuals 

 or aliens is the particular object in view. 



Quarries should be studied to show the 

 native flora and the casual flora under separate 

 heads. The influence of the rock soil Oii the 

 former should be studied carefully. 



