GRASS-LANDS : PASTURES AND MEADOWS 367 



Thus a greater area is covered by grasses than by any other 

 type of plant. Favoured by good methods of vegetative 

 increase, social habit, and great range of species suited to 

 very varied conditions, they form one of the most important 

 vegetation features of temperate regions, e. g. the extensive 

 pastures and meadows of Europe, the steppes of Russia, 

 and the prairies and savannas of America. They com- 

 monly form extensive carpets, as in our pastures and 

 meadows, and their numerous 

 leaves and the accumulated 

 remains of rhizomes and felted 

 roots form turf or sod. 



Grass moors. On the shaly 

 siliceous Pennine Slopes large 

 areas are dominated by grasses 

 (Fig. 235), two species being 

 especially conspicuous. The 

 Mat -grass (Nardus stricta) 

 (Fig. 236) in the summer 

 forms large tussocks with 

 grey -green, wiry, up -rolled 

 leaves (Fig. 255, 3) ; in the 

 autumn it turns a light yel- 

 lowish-brown, colouring the 

 mountain-sides and forming 

 a conspicuous feature in the 

 landscape ; it is easily recognized in the winter by 

 its one-sided empty spikelets. 



Along with it, and often becoming dominant over con- 

 siderable tracts, is another tussock-forming species, the 

 Waved Hair-grass {Dcschampsia flexuosa). Its leaves are 

 still finer than that of the Mat -grass, and up-rolled so as to 

 leave only a very narrow groove (Fig. 255, 4). 



The Bent (Agrostis vulgaris) and Sheep's Fescue (Fesluca 

 ovina) (Fig. 255, 2), both with up-rolled leaves, are very 



Fig. 236. Mat-grass. Part 

 of a tussock showing the 

 closely-packed shoots on the 

 rhizome. 



