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THE NADY RALIST 
For 1897. 
THE POSITION OF ANNUAL FLOWERING 
PLAN 
ALBERT HENRY PAWSON, F.L.S., 
Farnley, Leeds; President of the Botanical Section of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. 
AMONG the many problems which offer themselves to the observer 
of vegetable life, the question of duration is not the least interesting. 
Why, when most plants live for several or many years, do a few o 
them exhaust themselves in two summers, while a large number run 
their whole course between spring and the succeeding autumn ? 
One would suppose that there would be no place in the world 
_ for these monocarps, which perish as soon as they have ripened their 
ed, and every year must seek a new habitation on this already 
overcrowded globe. How does it happen, in the fierce competition 
which rages unceasingly among all forms of vegetation, that those 
which each year voluntarily abandon their sure footing on the earth 
are not soon jostled out of existence altogether? What spot is 
€ t on which they can hope that their offspring may 
establish themselves ? 
Beati possidentes/ This seems to be the maxim of our native 
herbs. The grasses teach this lesson, for in our latitude they seem 
to inhabit the earth. They are ever green and spreading; they 
contrive to endure the rigour of the winter and do not die down 
into the ground, like most of their fellows, but grow until the last 
breath of autumn is past. They take advantage of any warm 
spell of weather among the frosts to strengthen their position, and 
they are above ground and ready at the first approach of spring, 
while most other herbs are still sleeping. 
But even the perennial plants which disappear under ground 
during the winter still possess their stations. As soon as the 
warmth of the season calls them into life again they throw up 
vigorous growth from their established root-stocks and usually quite 
overpower any seedlings which may be attempting a settlement. 
A 
January 1897. 
