PLANT COLONIES 



221 



and 370. In the former is a water-lily society and a cat- 

 tail society. In the latter there are grass and bush and 

 woods societies. 



361. SOME DETAILS OF 

 PLANT SOCIETIES. Socie- 

 ties may be composed of 

 scattered and intermin- 

 gled plants, or of dense 

 clumps or groups of 

 plants. Dense clumps 

 or groups are usually 

 made up of one kind of 

 plant, and they are then called colonies. Fig. 372. Colo- 

 nies of most plants are transient: after a short time other 

 plants gain a foothold amongst them, and an intermingled 

 society is the outcome. Marked exceptions to this are 

 grass colonies and forest colonies, in which one kind of 

 plant may hold its own for years and centuries. 



372. A colony of weeds in a barnyard. 



373. The beginning of a forest on a lawn. 



Grass and weeds, and here and there a young bush and a forest tree. 

 The border is already forested. 



