208 ROUND THE YEAR 



fertilised, or wind-fertilised, or capable of being 

 fertilised by any good-sized Insect, and they are 

 therefore able to thrive in new countries, no matter 

 what Insect-life they may find there. But our garden 

 plants are selected by Man for their beauty. Many 

 of them come from the southern continents, or from 

 countries where competition is less severe than with 

 us. Many are rare in their native land. We clear a 

 bit of ground, plant it with a miscellaneous collection 

 of such species, and then a struggle begins between 

 the natives and the foreigners. It is all that we can 

 do to keep the weeds from exterminating their feeble 

 competitors. We tear them up by the roots, chop 

 them to pieces with hoes, and with much pains just 

 succeed in preserving our favourites from destruction. 

 The naturally selected are so much stronger than the 

 artificially selected that every three or four acres must 

 have a man to turn the scale against nature and keep 

 it turned. 



MOORLAND PLANTS. 



I wish to discuss certain peculiarities of the very 

 commonest plants of our Yorkshire moors. It would 

 be a great help if I could take it for granted that my 

 readers knew the most easily ascertained facts respect- 

 ing these plants. But it is only those who call 

 themselves botanists who have attempted to study the 

 structure of our wild flowers. The rest of the public, 

 99 per cent, or more of the whole number, keeps aloof 

 and never attends to these things. 



I am bound to say that the public has one excellent 



