88 Plant-life of the Oxford District 



8. Garden Strays, of casual occurrence. 



Reseda odorata. Mentha viridis. Foeniculum officinalis. 



9. Residual Swamp-flora. 

 Typha latifolia. 



10. Specially deep-rooted or rhizomatous plants, defying extirpation. 

 Convolvulus arvensis. Agropyrum repens. Polygonum amphibium. 

 Circaea lutetiana. Carduus arvensis. Ranunculus Ficaria. 

 Aegopodium Podagraria. Tussilago Farjara. (Equisetum arvense). 



As in the case of arable land, the chief interest of the botanist centres 

 in such despised weeds, rather than in the crops of the allotment-holder, 

 the former presenting the greater variety of habit and organization, as also 

 being entirely on their own, and fighting the last losing battle against domina- 

 tion by man, the latter, on the other hand, comprising tame and domesticated 

 races, spaced each in their own ground, wholly dependent on human assis- 

 tance for their origin and racial progression, and in a majority of cases never 

 working out their reproductive cycle, but cut or ' pulled ' as the ' crop ', when 

 they attain a certain stage of vegetative maturity ; to the extent that the 

 life of a cabbage becomes a byword of biological reproach. 



Waste Heaps and Derelict Ground. The debris of a modern town 

 includes an enormous amount of waste material, the rejectamenta of the 

 human population and dwellings, as ruins of buildings, collections of brick- 

 bats, stones and soil, to which is added in the present generation, stores of 

 paper, tin cans, broken glass and rusty iron. Such rubbish-heaps, casually 

 manured, with little good soil, but effective drainage, constitute a nidus for 

 weeds of all descriptions. 



These differ from the case of gardens and allotments, in that the intru- 

 sive plants are not going to be eradicated ; but, if anything, are regarded as 

 the happy solution of the problem of hiding such waste from sight ; at any 

 rate, with the result that the sordidness of the landscape is less obtrusive in 

 the summer than it is in winter, as the material becomes increasingly hidden 

 beneath a mantle of something green. None of such waste-heap flora 

 attains any conspicuously aesthetic value, though screens of Privet, annual 

 Impatiens Roylei and Scarlet Runner Beans are freely employed in garden- 

 construction. Such waste-heaps present ground which may be unoccupied 

 at any period of the year, usually amply drained, though with feeble water- 

 supply, commonly of fouled soil and hence suitable for colonization by 

 representatives of the more characteristic families of salt-storers and xero- 

 phytes (Chenopodiaciae, Polygonaceae, Cruciferae, Caryophyllaceae) ; and 

 annuals of these groups are commonly the first invaders to take control of 

 the new site. Being commonly near human occupation, and in sheltered 

 situations, they afford a sanctuary for refugees of all kinds, as escapes from 

 garden-cultivation, and alien weeds of a warmer climate vegetating in the 

 hot summer. Hence such localities become the happy hunting-ground of 

 seekers after ' adventives '. Almost anything may grow on a waste-heap 

 from huge plants of Helianthus animus (giant strain, capitulum 22 in. diam.) 

 to Cucurbita, Datura Stramonium (setting 75 capsules), Zea Mais, Wheat, 

 and even Phoenix (germinating from casual date-stones, in quantity, to the 

 3rd leaf). 1 The first annuals, as Poa annua, Capsella, Chenopodium album, 

 Polygonum aviculare, give place to Nettles, Docks, Plantains, coarse grasses 

 (Dactylis, Bromus sterilis, Hordeum murinum, Agropyrum repens), and a wide 

 range of types soon get together as samples of a struggling flora, which come 



1 Town waste, utilized as the basis of allotments in Port Meadow and Osney allotments, gives 

 large numbers of Apple, Pear, and Cherry seedlings, some of which have grown to fruiting trees. 

 Perhaps the most interesting case is the large number of Tomato plants coming up among the 

 Mangels, and even in the hay-grass of the Sewage Farm. 



