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 tunately most of the natural prairie has been replaced by 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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