FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



229 



fruit dispersed in the same way. The gre- 

 garious plants are dispersed usually by the 

 wind. The Composites generally, such as 

 thistles with feathery pappus, the Dandelion 

 and Goat's Beard with their parachute arrange- 

 ment, disperse their fruit with the assistance 

 of the wind. 



The small seeds of the Orchids, those of the 

 Campions, &c., with a sort of "censer" fruit, 

 are jerked out of the capsules by the swaying 

 of the fruit-stalks in the wind. The catapult 

 arrangements of such plants as the Meadow 

 Crane's Bill are devices of the plant itself. 

 Of these the majority are hedgerow plants 

 which, growing in sheltered spots, require 

 such assistance to disperse them to a distance. 

 Clayey Meadows, Sandy Meadows. &c. - 

 One of the most important factors in causing 

 the distribution of plants is the character of 

 the soil. There are some fifty geological 

 formations which are distributed in different 

 parts of the country, and these are responsible 

 for the different types of soil. Of these there 

 are six or seven, clay and loam, siliceous soils, 

 sand, lime or chalk, humus, peat, saline soil. 



The soil of meadows and pastures is of one 

 of the first four types as a rule. Where peat 

 or humus are present the vegetation is usually 

 of moorland or heath type, and by the sea the 

 salt marsh is largely saline. 



Where a clayey meadow exists we shall find 

 such plants as the Pilewort and the Cowslip. 

 On a sandy meadow the clovers, especially 

 White Clover, are common. A limestone or 

 chalk meadow is indicated by such plants as 

 Knapweed, Salad Burnet, Cicely, Bur Parsley, 

 Purple Scabious, &c. Lady's Smock, Meadow 

 Crane's Bill, Yellow Rattle, Spotted Orchis 

 usually indicate sandy meadows with some 

 peat and a little lime in the soil, as they are 

 very often members of a marshy type of flora. 

 In saline soils of salt marshes, which are con- 

 verted into meadows by the sea very often, 

 the Sea Aster, Wild Celery, Sea Milkwort, 

 and many other maritime plants are found. 



It will be very useful for pupils to draw up 

 lists of plants found upon different types of 

 soil in meadows and pastures, and to compare 

 them. 



Drainage and its Effect upon Meadows. 

 Not less profound than the effect of tree-felling 

 and cultivation upon the original forest land 

 has been that of drainage. Apart from the 

 conversion of the forests into corn lands by 

 the ridge-and-furrow method which at once 

 disturbed the plant formations native to the 

 soil, the influence of modern drainage has been 

 still more marked by (i) causing wet meadows 

 to become dry, (2) causing bog and marsh 

 plants to disappear, (3) assisting the work of 



tree-felling and other modern causes in making 

 the whole country much drier as a whole. 



The whole of the Fens has been converted 

 in this way during the last two hundred years 

 from aquatic vegetation into meadow and 

 arable land. In other parts unreclaimed land, 

 often swampy, boggy, or waste, more espe- 

 cially in lowland regions, has become ordinary 

 pasture. Many persons living to-day can 

 testify to this, and it is going on at the present 

 time on a grand scale in Ireland. 



So that it is only here and there, in areas 

 largely given up to meadows to-day, that it 

 is possible to find any traces of the original 

 vegetation, so many different stages has it 

 gone through owing to different causes. But 

 there do exist what the author has called "ves- 

 tiges " or "vestigial floras" that help one to 

 understand what the virginal character of the 

 vegetation really was. These are quite isolated 

 and owe their isolation largely to drainage. 



General Methods of Survey. (a) The Field 

 Itself. The author has recently had to under- 

 take the survey of a particular district upon 

 ecological lines, and has found that the intro- 

 duction of a novel plan of work has been the 

 most productive of results, and is adapted to 

 all classes of workers. 



In this system fields are studied one by one. 

 An Ordnance map of the district is procured, 

 and upon this the fields are numbered. In the 

 field the plant-lists bear the same numbers as 

 those given to the fields on the map. 



The plan adopted is to make a general survey 

 of the field by considering the abundance or 

 dominance of the Grasses in the first place. 

 The one which is most dominant is put down 

 first in the list, and the percentage may be 

 stated in relation to that of other Grasses. 

 Then the next most common Grass is put down 

 second, and the others in their order, and so 

 on. In a dry field one may have an abundance 

 (75 per cent) of Yellow Oat Grass or Sheep's 

 Fescue ; in a wet meadow Tussock Grass may 

 locally be dominant. As meadows are artificial 

 enclosures, the dominance or frequency in one 

 las to be contrasted and checked by that of 

 other fields. (The terms used are abundant, 

 locally abundant, frequent, occasional, rare.) 

 After the Grasses have been put down, the 

 rest of the plants are noted in order of abun- 

 dance or by frequency or percentage. When 

 a detailed survey is required, a plot is staked 

 out in squares, and every plant is noted and 

 mapped on squared paper. 



(b) Ditch. The examination of the ditches 



surrounding a field may come next. These 



are likewise artificial, but may indicate in 



connection with the type of water (hard or 



oft) the character of the natural aquatic 



