152 Wild Life in Wales 



noticeable. Here, perhaps, we see the developing of a 

 variety into what is sometimes considered a distinct species 

 under the title of Festuca vivipara ; but its identity with the 

 parent stock, or at any rate its immediate relationship there- 

 with, is at once apparent on a careful examination. Here 

 and there, amongst the monstrosities, a typical, non- 

 viviparous head may be discovered ; and close at hand, 

 where the grass has been subjected to more regular grazing, 

 the type rises triumphant over the variety. 1 The same 

 remarks may be applied with equal j ustice to several other 

 common grasses. Dactylis glomerata^ Cynosurus cristatus, 

 Holcus lanatus, and even Poa fluitam^ may all be noticed 

 showing more or less tendency to become viviparous here, 

 the first two commonly so ; and in some of the Carices a 

 similar, though less pronounced, inclination is visible. 



A mountainous district, such as this, where large tracts of 

 country have never been disturbed since glacial times, also 

 offers special facilities for the study of the natural spread 

 of vegetable life. A face of rock may be so smooth, and so 

 constantly washed by rain, that sufficient for the sustenance 

 of even a lichen has not collected on its surface. Or some 

 tiny crack, or inequality, may have held just enough of the 

 wasted stone to afford rooting space for the germ of lichen 

 or moss, which has spread outwards from its centre, it may 

 be to the magnificent diameter of a three-penny-bit, and yet 

 how many years old may the plant not be ! Elsewhere, 

 perhaps, a lichen has covered a space as large as a full-sized 

 dinner-plate, or crept all over the stone, but yet it may be 

 no older than its diminutive neighbour. So much do 



1 Were it claimed that the viviparous habit of these grasses was of prior 

 date to that in which the seeds came to be dropped before germination had 

 started, there is a good deal here which might be used in support of the 

 theory. Wherever sheep, or other herbivorous animals, were able to crop 

 the grass at will, it would obviously militate against the chances of young 

 plants arriving at maturity were they carried during their early growth on the 

 heads of their parents. Indeed, their very appearance there would only 

 invite annihilation, while seeds which fell to earth to germinate under the 

 protection of the neighbouring herbage would more generally escape. Hence 

 to find viviparous heads continuing in protected areas only, .and being 

 replaced everywhere else by the deciduous habit which had proved to be 

 more useful in the continuation of the species, would be nothing more than 

 a consideration of the circumstances would have led us to expect. 



