FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



227 



originally certain areas where trees did not 

 grow, usually at high altitudes or near the 

 coast, where in the distant past the forerunners 

 of the plants of the present open spaces were 

 already evolved. 



Some of these belong to those northern 

 plants which were driven south from the far 

 north with the Ice Age, and retreated to the 

 north again, or the tops of high hills, when 

 the country became milder. 



Certain of these northern plants are common 

 associates of the wet meadows, such as the 

 White Clover, Red Clover, Meadow Sweet, 

 &c., and many have been found in beds of 

 Preglacial and later ages. In each area the 

 river valleys of a district should be carefully 

 investigated to obtain traces of seeds to deter- 

 mine what was the type of vegetation in each 

 district. 



Meadow Habitats. By referring to the sum- 

 mary of the British Flora, in Vol. V, it will be 

 seen that in addition to the score or more of 

 common plants described in detail in this 

 volume, there are over 150 other British plants 

 that are found in meadows or pastures of one 

 type or another, some being common species, 

 others extremely rare. 



In studying this section the opportunity 

 may be taken to treat these other species in 

 the same way as those fully described, in other 

 words to elaborate a short life-history of some 

 of the more familiar ones ; and to make notes 

 upon them all. 



The Grass Habit, &c. In studying meadow 

 and pasture vegetation one outstanding feature 

 will soon make itself apparent, namely, the 

 prevalence of what may be best described as 

 the grass habit of the vast majority of the 

 plants that make it up. 



An examination of a field will show that the 

 bulk of the plants are Grasses. This will be 

 found out by making a careful survey field by 

 field on lines suggested later. The dominance 

 of the Grasses and the usefulness of the cereals 

 from prehistoric times is one outstanding 

 feature of civilization. 



The grass habit has succeeded, along with 

 the tree habit and shrub habit, over and above 

 all other types put together, and the various 

 reasons for this, and its bearing upon plant 

 life and distribution, will afford a great deal of 

 instructive inquiry. The grass habit, in a few- 

 words, has been acquired because it enables 

 the greatest number of individuals to survive 

 in the struggle for existence in the least 

 possible space, and at the same time by its 

 peculiar adaptiveness to wide open spaces to 

 occupy by far the greatest area proportionally 

 of the earth's surface successfully. 



Attention should be directed to the existence 

 VOL. II. 



of plants in the meadows with other habits, 

 such as the rosette habit of many Composites, 

 as the Dandelion, &c., the pyramidal habit of 

 others, as Meadow Crane's Bill (inversely 

 pyramidal), and other types. 



Diversity and Brilliance of the Colours of 

 Meadow Plants. A noticeable feature of the 

 plants of open meadows and pastures is the 

 predominance of brilliant flowers, and these 

 are not less remarkable again for their diver- 

 sity of colour. 



Though we cannot definitely say the colours 

 of flowers are brilliant and brightly coloured 

 merely to attract insects to perform, in return 

 for honey or pollen, the much-needed office of 

 cross-pollination, yet the two are obviously 

 connected. It is a fact worthy of notice that 

 the fields are especially the happy hunting- 

 grounds of all manner of insects. Beetles, 

 flies, butterflies and moths, bees and wasps, 

 dragonflies, and all the other less-known 

 orders are fully represented in the life of the 

 meadows. And with the hum of the bees, the 

 drone of the wasp, the buzzing of flies, one 

 notices that the fields are covered continuously 

 with masses of bloom from March to Sep- 

 tember. Early one sees the lilac Lady's 

 Smock, and later on, the primrose-tinted 

 Cowslip, the golden Dandelions, the golden 

 Buttercups, the crimson Clover, the lovely 

 blue Meadow Crane's Bill. These grow so 

 densely that the fields are one mass of colour. 

 Compare this with a woodland or a lake or a 

 salt marsh, and one is at once struck with the 

 beauty and diversity of the flowers of the fields. 



Height of Meadow Plants. An interesting 

 feature of meadow vegetation is the resem- 

 blance it presents to the types of plants to be 

 distinguished in a woodland. These consist 

 of a tree zone, the highest, with a lower stra- 

 tum of scrub, and the ground flora or lowest 

 stratum. It is probable that the tree type, 

 which usually has a more or less even or level 

 upper surface, has its normal level regulated 

 by the effect of wind, and where the wood is 

 dense by the effect of the close grouping of the 

 ultimate branches. 



The lower zones are regulated by the in- 

 fluence of light, and by the adaptation of the 

 plants to the overlying zones of tree and scrub, 

 and, of course, the character of the soil, &c. 



The same factors regulate the association 

 of the three tiers in a meadow. The Grasses 

 represent the tree zone, and their height may 

 be largely said to be regulated by the influence 

 of the wind. As a rule, the Grasses are of the 

 same height generally, but there are giants (as 

 amongst the trees) such as Tussock Grass, and 

 dwarfs, as Annual Meadow Grass. 



The scrub zone may be said to be represented 

 30a2 



