22 4 



HINTS AND NOTES 



or meadow we have the squares, rectangles, 

 or irregular areas known as fields, separated 

 from each other or from roads by boundary 

 fences. 



In a pasture, particularly, the effect is very 

 marked, and has a tendency to encourage the 

 supremacy of the Grasses and the ousting of 

 the less sturdy, herbaceous, succulent plants. 

 In fact, they are driven to the boundaries or 

 hedges and ditches in many cases, such plants 

 as White Dead-nettle and a host of others not 

 being able to cope with the stronger plants. 

 The planting of hedges with trees at intervals, 

 whilst quite artificial, has a tendency to 

 equalize matters or to preserve the balance, 

 and woodland types find a suitable habitat 

 there. The moisture -loving plants, driven 

 from the open field by over-drainage, can be 

 shown to have found refuge in the ditches. 



Where walls and dykes (i.e. deep ditches or 

 streams used as fences) are the boundary 

 fences the conditions of course vary again, 

 rock plants growing on the walls and aquatic 

 plants in the dykes. 



To-day it can be shown in each district that 

 there are few heaths and commons left. As 

 a rule, they are the special resort of gipsies. 

 They may also be shown to have a different 

 type of flora to that of the meadow or pasture, 

 which are derived very largely from them. 

 These points made clear will throw a flood 

 of light upon the character of meadow-land 

 vegetation. 



The Expansiveness of the Fields. What 

 will at once strike the observant mind is the 

 open character of meadow lands as a rule, if 

 one ignores the boundary hedges. A stretch 

 of meadows unrelieved by woodland or water 

 appeals at once to one as a great expanse 

 characterized by its openness. 



With this broad fact is connected the main 

 character of meadow and pasture plants. 

 They are as a rule sun plants, being on all 

 hands exposed to the heat and warmth of the 

 sun. There are no longer as a general rule 

 trees giving an ample shade above, and the 

 shade plants in the meadows for this reason 

 seek the shelter of the hedgerow, where they 

 can lurk in the undergrowth much as they did 

 formerly when denizens of the forest. 



In examining the meadow or pasture some 

 plants will be found that have not yet retreated 

 to the hedge or become extinct, such as Wood 

 Betony, whilst in the hedge itself the Greater 

 Stitchwort may be found. Both indicate 

 woodland conditions formerly. Amongst the 

 grass, or upon banks, mosses and other 

 lowly plants will be found, also, that have 

 survived the conversion of woodland into 

 meadows. The discovery of such relics will 



provide at least one problem of interest in this 

 direction. 



Lowland and Upland Meadows. The sur- 

 face of the country, once perfectly level, has 

 become extremely diversified, owing to various 

 causes, such as disturbance of the crust, de- 

 nudation and river development. 



We therefore find that meadows may be 

 lowland or upland in character. The lowlands 

 are characterized by such well-known plants 

 as Meadow Sweet, Great Hairy Willow Herb, 

 &c., whilst upon the uplands grow Dropwort, 

 Lady's Mantle, and many others. As a rule, 

 the plants of the lowland meadows are allied 

 to the marsh plants, and have come to us 

 from the north with the Great Ice Age, 

 or previously, whilst the upland plants are, 

 though at the highest altitude palaearctic types, 

 usually of southern origin. 



The vegetation of the upland meadows has 

 an affinity to the vegetation of a hill, but in the 

 last case the flora may be much less disturbed 

 and influenced by cultivation, and in this way 

 the floras are distinct. Altitude can thus be 

 shown to cause great differences in a flora. 



Northern and Southern Meadows. As we 

 travel northwards from the English Channel 

 to the north of Scotland a great change is 

 to be noticed in the character of the meadows 

 and pastures. This is due not only to the 

 difference of soil in the south, a great part of 

 this being made up of chalk, with calcareous 

 pastures dotted with fragrant orchids and 

 many plants not usually seen elsewhere, but 

 also to the difference in climate. For the 

 south coast as a rule is warmer than the Mid- 

 lands, and the latter much warmer than the 

 north of Scotland. In the south we have 

 southern plants, some of which, such as the 

 Cornish Heath, are allied to the plants found 

 in the Pyrenees. 



In the north of Scotland the plants of the 

 Highland pasture are more allied to the plants 

 that are found upon the Alps in Switzerland, 

 where many Saxifrages and Stonecrops, and 

 other cold-enduring plants, thrive even above 

 the snow line. But even in the lowland 

 meadows in the north the plants again are 

 very different, and are known as a whole as 

 Scottish types, though some British types 

 found in N. England also grow there. The 

 rocks also are much older and the soils they 

 form very different. 



The southern plants are also known as 

 English types, excluding the Pyrenean types, 

 and are of southern origin. It may be possible 

 to get the pupil to note these facts, when holi- 

 days are taken in different districts, by sug- 

 gesting the drawing up of a list of the plants 

 seen in each district. 



