WEEDS OF FARM LAND 



toadflax are less usually seen in arable fields, and are not often 

 present in any quantity. Very occasionally red bartsia and 

 tall buttercup dominate, but generally they are quite insignifi- 

 cant. Red bartsia (Bartsia odontites], however, attracts a 

 certain amount of unfavourable notice on account of its semi- 

 parasitic nature, described elsewhere (p. 102). 



(c) Plants with a Definite Preference for Light and Sandy 

 Soils as well as for Chalk. 



TABLE IX. WEEDS WITH A DEFINITE PREFERENCE FOR LIGHT AND 

 SANDY SOILS AS WELL AS FOR CHALK. 



The species in this list are on the whole very insignificant 

 members of the weed flora. Not one of them occurs at all 

 frequently, and it is very seldom that any are present in any 

 abundance. On one or two occasions musk thistle (Carduus 

 nutans] and small-flowered crane's-bill (Geranium pusillum) were 

 the chief weeds in the fields, but none of the others were ever 

 dominant. Yet, in spite of their comparative scarcity, several 

 of these plants are very interesting, and attract much attention. 

 Musk thistle, cudweed, henbit, corn campanula, and small 

 bugloss all have peculiar characteristics of habit or colour which 

 mark them out among their associates, and consequently an 

 observer often receives the impression that these weeds are 

 more common than they really are, and the results of the 

 numerical analysis come in the nature of a surprise. 



E. Weeds Associated with Peat Soils. 



Many peat soils are particularly difficult to cultivate owing 

 to their peculiar nature, and in most cases such soils are left 

 to their own devices or used for grazing or hay instead of for 



