Crossland and Needham : The Plants of Pecket Wood. 169 



day following- the felling- of the trees sap began to ooze from the 

 surface of the stumps and to drip copiously as a semi-trans- 

 parent fluid for a few days over their lower edg-es. Probably 

 this was the best time of the year for seeing- this phenomena.* 



A moist part of the wood towards the north end is occupied 

 almost exclusively by tall, closely-planted young- sycamores. 



Here, in the absence of clusters of beeches, there does not 

 appear to be any special connection between any particular tree 

 and its undergrowth ; shade or openness, and the dampness or 

 dryness of the ground regulates to a large extent the disposition 

 of the w^oodland plants. The soil throughout is a mixture of 

 disintegrated grit, grit shale, and humus. 



The light and shade (prior to 1903), the moist and dry 

 banks, the shelter of the grit blocks, and the various com- 

 binations of these, along with the water runs, induced a fairly 

 rich miscellaneous woodland flora. The dominant vegetation in 

 the general carpet of the wood consists of the two social plants 

 — hair-grass and spreading soft-grass. These appropriate large 

 patches between them ; hair-grass, as a rule, taking the higher, 

 opener, and drier situations ; spreading soft-grass the lower 

 and moister places. We say as a rule, because these plants are 

 not tied down by any hard and fast line from which they cannot 

 deviate ; hair-grass can grow anywhere (except in rich cultivated 

 land), though varying conditions of environment influence its 

 habit. It is most at home and most robust in a dryish, open, 

 heathy woodland. Hair-grass and soft-grass can and often do 

 mingle with each other in mixed woodlands, and are about the 

 only two plants which can withstand the dense shade of the 

 beech when that tree is present. They also occasionally form 

 a distinct boundary between each other. Further, hair-grass 

 caps the grit blocks, soft-grass does not. 



The two grasses are not equally friendly to the bluebell 

 [Scilla festalis) here. Where hair-grass is densest bluebells are 

 prohibited, though the subsoil is quite suitable to the latter. 

 They can compete to a certain extent with this grass where it is 

 thinner and scattered, but the bluebells even then are below the 

 general standard of growth, being weaker and fewer flowered. 

 They do better among soft grass, best of all when they 

 have the ground to themselves. They do not occur in wide, 



* In about a week after the first oozing- out of the sap, brig-ht yellow 

 patches beg-an to appear in the translucent liquid jelly ; one of these was 

 cut out and taken home to develop ; on the following morning- it was found 

 to be covered with the sporang-iferous hyphse of Mucor niucedo. 

 1Q04 June 3. 



