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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



or less enriched with humus, and salts are not in excess. Notable features 

 in a mesophyte society are the density of growth of the members 

 composing it, and the variety of leaf form they exhibit as compared 

 with xerophyte or even hydrophyte communities, in which the greater 

 uniformity of the environment induces a corresponding uniformity and 

 " sameness " in the character of the foliage. 



Prominent among mesophyte societies are the forests, chiefly com- 

 posed of deciduous trees such as Oak, Beech, Birch, Ash, Elm, Lime, 

 with Larch and Pines (the last-named evergreen). Forming the ground 

 vegetation among the undergrowth of young trees and shrubs are Ferns, 

 shade-loving Grasses, and the numerous herbaceous plants whose masses 

 of showy bloom make our woods so exquisitely beautiful in the spring 

 before the trees are in full leaf and the light thereby greatly reduced. 

 Anemones, Primroses, Violets, Garlic, Bluebells, Arums, yellow Dead- 

 nettle, and a few others form the bulk of the flowering ground herbage 

 in our English woodlands. (Figs. 11 and 12.) Epiphytic flowering plants 

 are not found in our forests, but in damp places the tree- trunks are 

 clothed with a growth of epiphytic Mosses, Liverworts and Lichens, and 

 frequently Ferns. 



Coppices or thickets, composed of shrubs and small trees such as 

 Hawthorn, Holly, Hazel, Elder, Maple, Willow, Dogwood, and many 

 others, often festooned with scrambling Eoses and Brambles and sprays 

 of climbing Honeysuckle, constitute another familiar mesophyte com- 

 munity. 



Another comprises meadows and pasture lands, where Grasses pre- 

 dominate, accompanied by many sun-loving herbs, such as the Daisy 

 (fig. 13), Dandelion, Cowslip, Buttercups, Plantains, Speedwells, Clovers 

 and Trefoils, various Umbellifene, and very many others. 



The "alpine carpet" of Gentians, Pinks, Saxifrages, Myosotis, &c. 

 must also be regarded as a mesophyte society, although associated with 

 many plants of xerophytic structure. 



The forests and jungles of the tropics, where a high temperature, 

 combined with a copious rainfall, produces a marvellously luxuriant growth 

 of trees and shrubs of all kinds and sizes, with climbing Vines or 

 Lianas, and epiphytic Orchids, Aroids, and other plants, also belong here. 



Halophytes, or salt-loving plants, usually exhibit well-marked xero- 

 phytic characters, for owing to the presence of salt in the soil the 

 roots absorb water with difficulty, and hence it is necessary to reduce 

 transpiration. They are nearly all plants with blue-green or grey-green 

 (glaucous) foliage, tough and leathery or thick and succulent, and with 

 long Meshy roots and underground stems. 



Rooting in crevices of the rocks in sea cliffs are such plants as the 

 Common Samphire (Critliviiimmaritimum) (fig. 14) and the rarer Golden 

 Samphire {Inula crithmoidcs) (fig. 15), plants with thick narrow fleshy 

 Leaves ; the Sea-pink (Armeria), with green leafy cushions and clusters 

 6f rose-pink flowers ; and the Sea-lavender (Statice), with rosettes of 

 tough leathery radical leaves, and wiry flowering stems. 



On the shingle beaches above the high-water mark grow the Sea- 

 holly with stiff spiny greyish foliage, and heads of bright blue flowers ; 

 the Sea-spurge; the Horned Poppy, conspicuous on account of its 



