SOME GENERAL HINTS AND NOTES 



SECTION II 



FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



Accessibility of the Meadows. A meadow 

 or pasture is perhaps for field work the most 

 accessible type or habitat for purposes of 

 teaching botany first-hand. As a rule, in 

 most parts of the country permission need not 

 be obtained for this or any other purpose, if it 

 be a legitimate one, hence the advantage of 

 studying the meadow from this one point 

 alone. 



There are generally public footpaths across 

 meadows leading from one place to another, 

 and these can always be used, each district 

 usually having its own footpath maps, which 

 should be secured as a guide to the topography 

 of the district and to avoid trespassing. In 

 general, meadows laid to grass must not 

 in summer be entered, nor those that abut 

 upon woods where game is preserved, and 

 where there are coops with hens and young 

 pheasants. 



Care should also be taken to close every 

 gate, as this is a frequent source of annovance 

 to farmers, as is also the breaking down of 

 fences in going from one field to another. If 

 these precautions are taken few farmers will 

 make any objection to excursions across 

 country, except in areas where game is pre- ' 

 served. 



If in any particular district such common 

 rights are not recognized it is advisable to 

 obtain permission, which, as a rule, owners or 

 occupiers will grant for such purposes. 



A word should here be said as to the neces- 

 sity of preserving wild plants, and protecting 

 them from any possible chance of extermina- 

 tion by exercising, in the case of rare species, 

 if it is desired to make collections, great care 

 in picking plants in such a way as not to 

 endanger their chance of perpetuating them- 

 selves, and where only a few plants are to 

 be seen none should be picked. 



Some remarks should be made as to col- 

 lecting and observing, but only general direc- 

 tions can be given here. Reference should be 

 made to the author's Practical Field Botany 

 (Griffin & Co.) for full details on this subject. 

 Plants should be collected in a fresh state, 

 and it should be settled beforehand whether 

 ! they are for study merely or for preserva- 

 tion. As complete a specimen as can be found 

 I should be selected, and this should be a typical 

 j one without any abnormal characters. 



Observations should be made on the spot, 

 and for this reason the pupils should be 

 provided with notebooks, pencils, sketching 

 blocks, squared paper, materials for making 

 maps, callipers for measuring, dissecting in- 

 ! struments of a simple kind, apart from those 

 , appliances, &c., that are required for definite 

 survey work if such is undertaken on more 

 scientific lines. For elementary work, of 

 course, fewer and more simple appliances 

 will be sufficient. 



Meadows once Common Land. Originally 

 meadows and pastures were forest lands. 

 Gradually, owing to one cause or another, 

 these forests were cut down. A great part 

 of the land not under cultivation or planted 

 with trees was common land, upon which the 

 countryman could graze his cattle, &c., free of 

 rent or tithe. But gradually these rights of the 

 people, as they were looked upon, were taken 

 from them, and to-day very little common land 

 exists. In some cases these lands were en- 

 closed so long ago as the sixteenth century, 

 but the bulk of the common land was enclosed 

 in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 



The significance of the enclosure of land is 

 very important, and is usually ignored in 

 studying the character of vegetation. But 

 upon a meadow or pasture the effect has been 

 profound. Instead of wide stretches of pasture 



