VEGETATION OF MEADOWS AND PASTURES 63 



and flowers nearly the whole year round ; the large Ox-eye Daisy 

 flowers with the hay. 



The plants growing in a meadow have certain resemblances 

 in structure ; these may be regarded as the characters by which 

 they have adapted themselves to their surroundings. 



1. They are mostly perennial. This is true of most of the 

 meadow grasses, and it is interesting to note that where a grass 

 is naturally an annual, as the Italian Rye Grass, it may become 

 a perennial. The red and white Clovers, the Bird's-foot Trefoil, 

 the Buttercup, the Knapweed, the Yarrow are all perennials. 



2. Many meadow plants have something of the nature of 

 creeping underground stems, stolons, or rhizomes, which pro- 

 duce a carpet of vegetation. 



3. The leaves are thin, flat, broad, and smooth ; those of 

 the meadow grasses have stomata on both sides, and they never 

 roll up as those of xerophytic grasses do. This structure of the 

 leaf allows of free transpiration and assimilation. 



In Switzerland the Meadow Plant Communities have been 

 classified by Schroter according to the type of meadow ; thus 

 u dry meadow," " wet meadow/' etc. Another classification 

 and one to be preferred is based on the dominant grass or 

 dominant plant other than the grass ; thus there is the Festuca, 

 the Poa, the Agrostis associations among the grasses, and the 

 Carex, the Orchis among other flowering plants. In Gloucester- 

 shire, where these meadow plant associations have been now 

 observed for some few years, it is found that in certain parts of 

 the county the Cowslip is almost absent ; whilst in other parts 

 it may be considered the dominant plant, and associated with 

 it in many meadows is the Early Purple Orchis. In these 

 meadows we should have a Cowslip-Orchis association ; in 

 some parts of the county the Daffodil is the dominant plant, 

 not the Cowslip. One great difficulty in mapping out Plant 

 Communities in meadows lies in the fact of the succession of 

 plants. For instance, the Early Purple Orchis may be domi- 

 nant in spring ; a month or two later the Green-winged Orchis 

 may be the dominant species, and in late summer yet another 

 group of plants will be in flower. In England, very little work 

 has as yet been done on Meadow Plant Communities. 



