GRASS- 1. AN I) WKKDS 183 



VEGETATION OF SPECIAL AREAS OF GRASS-LAND^ 



In the course of a survey of grass-land one thing gradually 

 forces itself upon the attention, i.e. the marked effect that slight 

 differences in level of soil or conditions of life has upon the 

 herbage. Areas round gates and paths through fields are 

 sharply marked out in this way, and they are characterised by 

 a very definite type of vegetation. 



Round the gates the soil is usually much trodden, so 

 that its surface becomes more or less free from the ordin- 

 ary grasses of the field. It often happens that this trodden 

 soil is colonised by certain weeds more usually found on 

 arable land, such as knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare], swine- 

 cress (Stnebiera coronopus], annual meadow-grass (Poa annua], 

 mayweed (Matricaria inodora}, all plants that do not intrude 

 into the general herbage. Frequently the vegetation is 

 still more characteristic. The grasses that do occur often 

 rough meadow-grass (Poa trivialis] (Fig. 41 C) frequently 

 assume a prostrate habit. One plant is almost ubiquitous in 

 such situations. Wherever a field is much trodden, there almost 

 certainly to be found is the greater plantain (Plantago major] 

 (Fig. 41 A), and the more trodden the soil the finer the plant 

 seems to grow. Paths are often demarcated by this plantain, 

 and it appears even in places where not a vestige of it occurs 

 in the regular herbage. Silverweed (Potentilla anserind] (Fig. 

 41 B) comes a very good second to the plantain, but is 

 more apt to congregate round gates and cart tracks than 

 along footpaths. Locally the broad dock (Rumex obtusifolius] 

 and creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense) occur in abundance, and 

 occasionally the hoary plantain (Plantago media] may be ob- 

 served. In one instance, at Falfield, Glos, where the path 

 through a field was still green and not bare, it was colonised 

 by a thick carpet of daisy (Rellis perennis] and dove's-foot 

 crane's-bill (Geranium molle] ; but this was an exceptional case. 



Wherever a manure heap or stack is placed in a field the 

 grasses underneath are more or less completely killed out, and 

 on the removal of the stack a bare area is left on which colonis- 

 ation begins. The manure introduces various weed seeds, 

 usually from arable fields, and such species as knotgrass, mouse- 

 ear chickweed, fat hen, shepherd's purse, chick weed, orache, 

 thyme-leaved speedwell, toadrush and groundsel, may usually be 



^renchley, W. E. (1916-17), "West Country Grass-lands," Jour. Bath 

 and West and Southern Counties Soc., XI, pp. 104-108. 



