Wooclru^e-Peacock : Floral Competition and Cycles. 417 



applicable to one falling' in qualit)'. An epizootic disease among^st 

 herbivores, as is not uncommon even in wildest Africa, may cut 

 off the supply of stock. Now as the secret of good pasture, in 

 nature or by art, is regular and systematic cropping", both plant 

 and soil would suffer rapid deterioration. Primula veris, 

 Buniiim and Chrysanthemum Leiicanthemum, to name three 

 common pests of certain pastures, in the order in which they 

 would reappear, would gradually return to their former habitats, 

 as a more open turf, and its condition of growing poverty made 

 it adapted to their requirements. It is no use looking for plants 

 where, from the necessity of the case, they cannot be found. 



It is no use opening foreign floras to discover that Malva 

 sylvestris is ' a native of bushy places and pastures in most 

 parts of Europe, but becomes more and more confined to arti- 

 ficial habitats to the norih-west, and in England is not recorded 

 in natural habitats, though common about road sides and 

 houses.' Cultivation grows more and more intense from 

 Constantinople north-westwards in Europe, and as this in- 

 creases, this species is driven more and more certainly into 

 artificial habitats. The fact that it is thus driven is only note- 

 worthy when considering' this plant's growth cycle under intense 

 cultivation ; it has no bearing on the question of its ' nativeness ' 

 whatever. What position in continental cycles do 'bushy 

 places and pastures' imply? Is there any one alive with a 

 sufficient grasp of continental circumstances to say? We find 

 words, a phrase, but no scientific exposition whatever. It 

 simply comes to this, Malva sylvestris is found in bushy places 

 and poor pastures, if such we may call them, round villages 

 in S.W. Europe ; and in the few such places which still exist in 

 their pristine purity — impurity now — with us. 



Take Lamium album as an instance of an unstable perennial. 

 I find from my notes its flowering range extends on all classes 

 of soil from the middle of April to the middle of January, if the 

 season allows. It cannot compete with Poa annua, Stellaria 

 nledia, and a few other species in this respect, but it does not 

 suff"er either from deficiency of seed or of growth period. It is 

 often found on sandy gravelly soils, when the}' first ' tumble 

 down ' to grass, but is soon driven out under ordinar}' circum- 

 stances — stock are fond of it and consume it eagerly. In 

 meadows it is destroyed by the stock, after the hay crop has 

 been gathered ; this is easily proved from churchyards, which are 

 never stocked. On light soils it flourishes greatly in them, often 

 forming an eighth of the herbage. It cannot stand the close 



1906 December i. 



