CHAPTER XXIV 
MESOPHYTES 
211. General characters.—Mesophytes include the com- 
mon vegetation of temperate regions. The conditions of 
moisture are medium, precipitation is in general evenly 
distributed, and the soil is rich in humus. This may be 
regarded as the normal condition for plants. It is certainly 
the arable condition, and best adapted to the plants which 
men cultivate. When for the purposes of cultivation xero- 
phytic areas are irrigated, or hydrophytic areas are drained, 
it is simply to bring them into mesophytic conditions. Con- 
spicuous among mesophytic associations are the following: 
212. Meadows.—This term must be restricted to natural 
meadow areas, and should not be confused with artificial 
areas of the same name under the control of man. The 
appearance of such an area hardly needs description, as the 
vegetation is a well-known mixture of grasses and flowering 
herbs, the former usually predominating. Such meadows, 
of large or small extent, are very common in connection 
with forest areas and on the flood-plains of streams (Fig. 
313). 
The greatest meadows of the United States are the 
prairies, which extend in general from the Missouri east- 
ward to the forest region of Illinois and Indiana. The 
vegetation of the prairies is usually composed of tufted 
grasses and perennial flowering herbs (Fig. 314). Unfor- 
tunately most of the natural prairie has been replaced by 
farms, and the characteristic prairie plants are not easily 
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