THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



salts, have been used without 

 mineral manure ; it is a weed 

 indicative of sour ground. The 

 Quaking Grass, the Bird's -foot 

 Trefoil, the Burnet, Hawkbit, and 

 Black Knapweed may also be 

 considered characteristic of poor 

 land. 



In meadows, where there is a 

 certain amount of moisture, the 

 Meadow Saxifrage may be found. 

 It is abundant in several parts of 

 England and southern Scotland, 

 but is rare in Ireland. The stems 

 are six inches to a foot high, the 

 leaves are kidney-shaped, and the 

 flowers are large and white. It is 

 a perennial. 



A plant characteristic of 

 meadows or pastures on clayey 

 soil is the Self-heal, one of the 

 Labiatae. The stem is creeping, 



the flowering branches vary in height from 



two or three inches to six or eight ; they 



are seldom a foot high. The flowers are 



a deep purple. 



It is hardly necessary to remark that 



Buttercups and Daisies together with 



Grasses and Clovers are the dominant 



plants in a meadow. In moist meadows 



the Bulbous and the Creeping Buttercup 



are the two most common species of 



Ranunculus : the former may be recog- 

 nised by the turned back sepals ; the 



latter by the middle lobe of the leaf, 



which projects beyond the others and by 



the creeping stem. The Small Daisy (Bellis FIG. 24. Self-heal (Prunella 



perennis) grows very close to the ground, 



FIG. 23. Meadow Saxifrage (Saxifraga 

 granulata). 



